Mass Atrocity, Ordinary Evil & Hannah Arendt - Criminal Consciousness in Argentina`s Dirty War

This important book addresses Hannah Arendts controversial argument that perpetrators of mass crimes are completely unaware of their wrongdoing, and therefore existing criminal laws do not adequately address these defendants. Mark Osiel applies Arendts ideas about the kind of people who implement bureaucratized large-scale atrocities to Argentinas Dirty War of the 1970s, and he also delves into the social conditions that could elicit such reprehensible conduct. He focuses on Argentine navy captain Astiz, who led one of the most notorious abduction squads, to discover how he and other junior officers could justify the murders of more than ten thousand suspected subversives.