Humanity

by Jonathan Glover

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

909.82

Collections

Your library, Philosophy, Sociology & Political Science

Publication

Pimlico (2001), Edition: New Ed, 480 pages

Description

The twentieth century was the most brutal in human history, featuring a litany of shameful events that includes the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Stalinist era, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda. This book looks at the politics of our times and the roots of human nature to discover why so many atrocities were perpetuated and how we can create a social environment to prevent their recurrence. Jonathan Glover finds similarities in the psychology of those who perpetuate, collaborate in, and are complicit with atrocities, uncovering some disturbing common elements--tribal hatred, blind adherence to ideology, diminished personal responsibility--as well as characteristics unique to each situation. Acknowledging that human nature has a dark and destructive side, he proposes that we encourage the development of a political and personal moral imagination that will compel us to refrain from and protest all acts of cruelty.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member J.v.d.A.

Absorbing and wide ranging book, instantly accessible and very well written. Glover makes a difficult and complicated subject a pleasure to read.

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LibraryThing member resveratrol

This is a different take on the development of and rationale behind the major atrocities of the twentieth century, including detailed chapters on the growth of Stalinism and the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people.

The book is compelling reading, in a large part due to its cringe inducing

descriptions of various atrocities committed in the past 100 years. The author attempts to explain these events through an ethical and philosophical framework. I didn't find much to distinguish the author's arguments from others who have also written on these atrocities. A section on the actions of philosophers in Nazi Germany was particularly dry, and seemed primarily to be in there as a justification for the author to burnish his credentials as a philosopher.

Overall, however, it is a very thought-provoking book, and made me reexamine my assumptions behind such acts as the fire-bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This book was written in 1999, but has much relevance in the post 9/11 world, particularly in the author's examination of a society's moral slide to the point of being able to accept and initiate atrocities against its own people or those of other nations.

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LibraryThing member jcvogan1

Through a review of the targetting of civilians in WWI and WWII, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot and Nazism, along with a few other examples, talks about the role of morality in human political activity, particularly with regards to the use of violence. Insights are not revolutionary but well-thought threw

and is a good introduction to the historical examples, if unknown to the reader.

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LibraryThing member chriszodrow

Promised much more than it delivered. A good historical survey, but a superficial analysis and crank solutions.

LibraryThing member grahzny

My first non-fiction in a while. It's a very intense book, covering major atrocities of the twentieth century and trying to connect the dots from smaller ones to larger. The idea is to find parallels. Do transitions such as going from allowing a few "accidental" civilian targets in WW2 bombing ->

encouraging firebombing of cities -> Hiroshima & Nagasaki mirror the transitions of dehumanizing prisoners -> coming to accept torture as ok? What combinations of fear and intimidation kept people from speaking up and helping under Stalin and Hitler and Mao? And why did some people keep small bites of their humanity while others were liberated to cruelty?

Anyway, a heavy book, but very readable. I enjoyed learning the history more than his philosophy.

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