"<i>Flowers That Kill</i> is an impressive, wide-ranging feat of scholarship that illuminates a fascinating topic: the capacity of flowers to shift imperceptibly from benevolent symbols to harbingers of death and destruction. The deft but nuanced way in which Ohnuki-Tierney handles this sensitive material makes the book of crucial importance to academics and non-academics alike—really, to anyone still troubled by the horrors of World War II or by the human calamities of our times."—Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam, author of <i>Perils of Belonging</i> "Provides one of the best 'conjunctions' of history and anthropology we have."—<i>Journal of Social History</i> "Few contemporary anthropologists write with the emotional depth and complexity of thought as Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. In <i>Flowers That Kill</i> Ohnuki-Tierney takes on a most difficult task, asking how symbolic meaning changes—how symbols that carry core values become politically opaque, often subverting their moral content in ways that also subvert human action. <i>Flowers That Kill</i> not only shows the power of what we take for granted, but offers a compassionate acceptance of perhaps the greatest challenge to our humanness."—A. David Napier, University College London