Humanity: the Recent Moral History

(Paperback)

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An examinating of the history and morality of the twentieth century, which explores the human psychology that conceived, executed or facilitated the greatest atrocities of the century. This book is about history and morality in the twentieth century. It is about the psychology which made possible Hiroshima, the Nazi genocide, the Gulag, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other atrocities. In modern technological war, victims are distant and responsibility is fragmented. The scientists making the atomic bomb thought that they were only providing a weapon- how it was used was to be the responsibility of society. The people who dropped the bomb were only obeying orders. The machinery of the political decision-taking was so complex that no one among the politicians was unambiguously responsible. No one thought of themselves as causing the horrors of Hiroshima. Jonathan Glover examines tribalism- how, in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia, people who once lived together became trapped into mutual fear and hatred. He investigates how, in Stalin's Russia, Mao's China and in Cambodia, systems of belief made atrocities possible. The analysis of Nazism explores the emotionally powerful combination of tribalism and belief which enabled people to commit acts otherwise unimaginable. Drawing on accounts of participants, victims and observers, Jonathan Glover shows that different atrocities have common patterns which suggest weak points in our psychology. The resulting picture is used as a guide for the ethics we should create if we hope to overcome them. The message is not one of pessimism or despair- only by looking closely at the monsters inside us can we undertake the project of caging and taming them.

Reviews

Superbly argued, and always accessible, Humanity is an essential guide to modern catastrophe. Few books interrogate our recent moral history so directly or profoundly, or provide such a civilized analysis of the never-ending atrocity exhibition. -- Ian Thomson * Independent on Sunday *
Jonathan Glover's Humanity deserves classic status and the widest readership. -- Edward Pearce * History Today *
A stimulating new book... written with understanding and exceptional lucidity... Glover's analysis is thoughtful and penetrating. -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *
Highly readable and accomplished. -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *
A book which as many people as possible ought to read... An indispensable work of reference. -- Samuel Brittan * Prospect *

Author Bio

Jonathan Glover is Director of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King's College London. his previous books include Responsibility, Causing Death and Saving Lives, What Sort of People Should There Be and I- Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity. He chaired a European Commission Working Party on the ethics of assisted reproduction.