From the opportunistic acts of pillage and bloodletting enacted in ancient conquests, to the mechanistic genocide of the Holocaust, episodes of mass violence provide the most momentous and profound experiences of human history. They are also events that tend to inflame enduring passions and controversy, informing broader, collective understandings of the past and present in ways that are diverse and divisive. This unit takes a critical, historical approach to the study of mass atrocity. It considers what these episodes reveal about the extreme dimensions of racial, religious and political conflict, and examines atrocities as contested sites of memory which bequeath lingering questions of responsibility, retribution and reconciliation.