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It is remarkable to look at the twentieth century, one distinguished by crucial human rights victories, and realize the stain that genocide has left on its underside. It is essential that in the twenty-first century, these acts be studied and better understood, not only as a way to honor those victims, but to curb such events from happening in the future. Erick Weitz, in his A Century of Genocide, studies four genocides, searching for a clear definition of the term. Through his work, genocides are given clear boundaries that make it possible for future members of society to see the warning signs that take place before such atrocities. Weitz looks at the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, Germany under the Nazis, the former Yugoslavia, and Cambodia under Khmer Rouge. Weitz argues that, although each genocide has unique properties, there are significant characteristics to each that help historians define when something becomes a genocide. The three main factors that lead to genocide are as follows: certain view points on race and nation, revolutionary governments that uphold certain utopian ambitions, and times of crisis that have been created by “war and domestic upheaval. ” He divides up each case study into different stages: Power and Utopia, Categorizing the Population, Purging th