Native American, American West, and Genocide in World History

Ben Madley is an historian of Native America, the United States, and genocide in world history. Born in Redding, California, Ben spent much of his childhood in Karuk Country near the Oregon border where he became interested in the relationship between colonizers and indigenous peoples. He writes about California Indians as well as colonial genocides in Africa, Australia, and Europe, often applying a transnational and comparative approach.

He is now transforming his dissertation, "American Genocide: The California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873," into a book for Yale University Press. Ben's current research explores Native American labor in the making of the western United States.

Ben completed a B.A. in History at Yale University in 1994 and received a Henry Fellowship to attend Oxford University, where he earned an M.St.in Modern European History. In 2009, he completed his Ph.D. in the Yale History Department. Before coming to UCLA, Ben was an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the History Department and Native American Studies Program at Dartmouth College.

PUBLICATIONS & DOCUMENTARY FILM


Journal Articles and Book Chapters

"The Genocide of California's Yana Indians" in Samuel Totten and Williams S. Parsons, eds., Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (New York: Routledge, 2012), 16-53.

"Tactics of Nineteenth Century Colonial Massacre: Tasmania, California and Beyond" in Philips G. Dwyer and Lyndall Ryan, eds., Theatres of Violence: Massacres, Mass Killing and Atrocity Throughout History (New York: Berghan Books, 2012), 110-125.

"When 'The World Was Turned Upside Down': California and Oregon's Tolowa Indian Genocide, 1851-1856" in Adam Jones, ed., New Directions in Genocide Research (New York: Routledge, 2011), 170-196.

"California's Yuki Indians: Defining Genocide in Native American History," The Western Historical Quarterly 39:3 (Autumn 2008), 303-332.

"From Terror to Genocide: Britain's Tasmanian Penal Colony and Australia's History Wars," Journal of British Studies 47:1 (January 2008), 77-106.

"From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa incubated ideas and methods adopted and developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe," European History Quarterly 35:3 (July 2005), 429-464.

"Patterns of Frontier Genocide, 1803-1910: The Aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the Herero of Namibia," Journal of Genocide Research (June 2004), 167-192.

Book Reviews

Deborah and Jon Lawrence, Violent Encounters: Interviews On Western Massacres (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011) The Western Historical Quarterly (Summer, 2012).

Saul Friedländer, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2007) Journal of Genocide Research 12:3 (Autumn, 2010).

Richard T. Stillson, Spreading the Word: A History of Information in the California Gold Rush (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006) The Western Historical Quarterly 39:1 (Spring, 2008).

Frank Baumgardner, Killing for Land in Early California: Indian Blood at Round Valley, 1856-1863 (New York: Algora Publishing, 2005) The Americas 64:2 (October, 2007).

William D. Rubinstein, Genocide: A History (Harlow: Longman, 2004) European History Quarterly 36:2 (April, 2006).

Documentary Film Participation

Namibia: Genocide and the Second Reich, a 60-minute BBC documentary (first aired December 7, 2004).

Phi Alpha Theta/ Westerners International Dissertation Prize, 2010

Yale University Fredrick W. Beinecke Dissertation Prize, 2009

Arrell M. Gibson Award for best article of 2008, in any journal, on Native American History, 2009

Oscar O. Winther Award for best article of 2008 in The Western Historical Quarterly, 2009