Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty [Paperback]

The book really has 5 parts:-
Introduction - discussion on the question of evil and the answers
Image and reality
The four roots of evil
How they do it
Conclusion - a discussion on why there is evil

Within these sections, Baumeister deals with many forms of violence, ranging from violence committed during times of war, gang violence, and even to violence in marriage, such as marital rape. The focus is not only on the perpetrators of violence though - the victims of violence are also discussed.
This is a very interesting and intelligent piece of work. It illustrates how evil is made to exist in our world - the media are often providing us with stories which could easily be put down to 'evil' almost every day of our lives (the recent war, brutal muggings of defenseless old people, child abuse stories, murder and so on). But the really scary thing about this book is that, with a lot of the stories quoted, the people involved are 'everyday' people, people like me and you. It is not just psychopaths who committ terrible acts - Baumeister refers to the Nazi regime, pointing out that police officers and guards often had to kill people as ordered, and that they did so out of a certain kind of duty. Extreme as this may be in some ways, it also shows how easily evil took control over that situation.

A brilliant book - disturbing in it's truthfulness.

In most cases people avoid perceiving their activities as evil by concentrating on the methodology of their activities, avoiding empathizing with the victim, and/or believing that the end justifies the means. Thus in order to effectively combat evil, one must expose it publicly and strip away the illusions of the perpetrators. The historical arguments for this which the author provides are compelling. I would recommend this book as good therapy for anyone who has been the victim of evil. It is also very useful as a tool to clarify choices for anyone caught up in a moral dilemma. Particularly helpful should be Roy's discussion that resulting human suffering, not personal or idealistic motivation, is the better tool for judging whether a particular planned action might be evil.