"[3] The book draws on Moses' earlier work on settler colonialism, liberal imperialism, comparative genocide studies, and the history of violence.

[6] The book was published about the same time as Moses initiated the catechism debate, arguing that German Holocaust remembrance has shut down criticism of colonialism and racism.

[13] Sinja Graf praised the book as "written from an unrelenting concern for the sanctity of human lives" and "a landmark study that redefines perspectives on mass atrocities across political science, history, and international law".

[15] Historian Omer Bartov described the book as "an erudite, complex, and in many parts quite fascinating read", but says that Moses fails to propose a viable alternative to the concept of genocide.

[1] Some Holocaust historians accused Moses of promoting a conspiracy theory by which Raphael Lemkin, a major supporter for the inclusion of genocide in international law, was a Jewish exclusivist and only concerned regarding the Jews under Nazi rule.

Moses does not engage with the argument of Götz Aly that greed and acquisitiveness, both in terms of individual perpetrators enriching themselves and Germany's desire to dominate Europe and live on plunder, were among the primary motivators of Nazi criminality.