How Holocausts Happen is a book by Douglas V. Porpora that deals with the United States involvement in Central America in regards to their participation in the genocidal policies of Nicaraguan counterrevolutionary forces and the reaction of the general public to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

He is an active member of NETWORK, a national social justice lobby, and is the author of three other books, The Concept of Social Structure (1987), Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life (2001), and Transcendence: Critical Realism and God (2004).

Porpora argues that moral indifference and lack of interest in critical reflection are key factors that enable Holocaust-like events to happen.

Porpora cites numerous examples of U.S.-backed Latin American government actions against their own peasants, Indians, and dissident factions.

How Holocausts Happen is at once a scholarly examination of the nature of genocide and an indictment of American society.