On 2012-10-14, at 8:46 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> The 20th-century as a whole was a fucking catastrophe. Has anyone ever made
> a serious attempt to count the dead?
I've linked to a study claiming 231 million combatants and civilians died in 20th century international and civil conflicts, including by disease and starvation. It's a controversial subject because who is included and the estimated number of victims can vary widely, often due to political bias, particularly in relation to the famines under Stalin Mao. A quick scan of this study, for instance, appears to omit mention of the 1943 Bengal famine in India which claimed three million lives and could have been relieved except for Churchill's refusal to provide food relief. (Doug had an interesting interview with a female Indian journalist and author of a recent book on the famine on his radio program earlier this year).
http://www.cissm.umd.edu/papers/files/deathswarsconflictsjune52006.pdf