To think about genocide and terrorism is to accept an invitation from hell. In fact, hell may be too a term since it makes a kind of sense out of genocide and terrorism and ultimately begs the question: What is genocide? What sense does it make to kill or disable all members of an other group just because they are that other group: men, women, children? What sense can we make of genocide? The very meaning of "sense" threatens to disintegrate. is the first systematic attempt to understand what, up until now, has seemed inexplicable. Author Bruce Wilshire uncovers what seems to be the deepest root of the genocidal urge: disgust and dread in the face of abounding, fecund, life itself—swarming, creeping, scurrying, unboundable, and uncontrollable. If his claims about the genocidal urge is true, genocide and terrorism are the ultimate anti-ecology. is a rare and seminal work by a distinguished and original thinker.