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The problem of when, how and what kinds of ideas give rise to mass atrocity has long been a central concern for scholars and practitioners alike. Do we look to powerful ideological visions for the radical renewal of society? Or are these utopian/revolutionary/ethnonationalist projects mere smokescreens for the more prosaic ambitions of political elites and their unthinkingly obedient servants? While accepting aspects of these broad positions in the literature, Jonathan Leader Maynard argues that ‘neither’allow scholars to paint a complete picture. Instead, Ideology and mass killing seeks to demonstrate how the ideas that motivate and justify genocide and other atrocities are rooted in ‘mundane’and everyday ways of thinking and talking about security. The book goes against the grain of what Maynard dubs ‘traditional–ideological’perspectives. These were largely constructed in the post-1945 period as an attempt to …