Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or their descendants went, the native people were caught between imported epidemics and colonialism, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations.

The author explores the history of ancient European and Christian attitudes toward religion, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against indigenous peoples of the Americas.

He writes that the indigenous genocides in the New World were based upon the proposition that American Indians were biologically, racially, and inherently inferior.

It is an ideology of Western supremacy that remains alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has resulted in American justifications for military interventions overseas.

His chapters then expand to dramatic accounts of pestilence, genocide, and then to fascinating discussions on sex, race and the holy war against native peoples of the Americas.