Event Details
Terrorism expert and Georgetown University Professor Daniel Byman will speak about his latest publication, American Pogroms (Oxford University Press, 2026). Professor Byman argues that there is a word for this type of communal violence: pogrom. Although pogroms are historically associated with the orchestrated campaigns of anti-Jewish violence in Tsarist Russia, Byman asserts that pogroms have been an all-too-frequent feature of American history. Tracing two centuries of communal violence, Byman recounts cases of attacks against American religious minorities such as Catholics and Mormons, the killing of thousands of ethnic Mexicans in Texas, the murder and wholesale expulsion of Chinese workers from the American West, and the repeated attacks on the Black community that killed thousands and enabled decades of brutal discrimination. In all these cases, pogroms helped cement a system of injustice that left religious, ethnic, and racial minorities politically and economically marginalized. While the idea of mob violence now strikes most Americans as unthinkable, Byman warns that increased polarization and selective news consumption in recent years have coarsened discourse and legitimized violence, raising the risk that at least some violence will return. This free talk will be held virtually. Registration is required.
Daniel Byman is a professor in the School of Foreign Service with a concurrent appointment in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Professor Byman is also the director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is an editor at Lawfare and served on the Department of State’s International Security Advisory Board. He is a leading expert in his field and the author of numerous scholarly books and articles.