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Humanity: The Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Pimlico)
 
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Humanity: The Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Pimlico) (Paperback)

by Jonathan Glover (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
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Customers buy this book with Causing Death and Saving Lives: The Moral Problems of Abortion, Infanticide, Suicide, Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, War and Other Life-or-death Choices by Jonathan Glover

Humanity: The Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Pimlico) + Causing Death and Saving Lives: The Moral Problems of Abortion, Infanticide, Suicide, Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, War and Other Life-or-death Choices
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Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Pimlico; New edition edition (4 Jan 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0712665412
  • ISBN-13: 978-0712665414
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 110,525 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"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"

"A gripping and necessary book." --"Sunday Times"

Product Description
This work is a study of history and morality in the 20th century. It examines the psychology which made possible Hiroshima, the Nazi genocide, Rwanda and Bosnia. It draws on accounts of participants, victims and observers and suggests that different atrocities have common patterns.

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Humanity: The Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Pimlico)
85% buy the item featured on this page:
Humanity: The Moral History of the Twentieth Century (Pimlico) 4.4 out of 5 stars (5)
£11.19
Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
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Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century 4.6 out of 5 stars (8)
Causing Death and Saving Lives: The Moral Problems of Abortion, Infanticide, Suicide, Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, War and Other Life-or-death Choices
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Causing Death and Saving Lives: The Moral Problems of Abortion, Infanticide, Suicide, Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, War and Other Life-or-death Choices 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
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5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent, accessible and important book, 23 Nov 2001
By A Customer
This is an important book and one that we all should read. The examination of the mentalities of Nazi perpetrators in particular is brimming with insight. Above all it is a call for philosophy to be of relevance to the ordinary world in which we live. And in its insistence that humour - particularly a sense of irreverance - and skepticism are two of the most important qualities individuals must display to protect the erosion of political freedoms, it is a work which does point the way we should go in this increasingly secular age. Buy it. Reading it will make you think.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A ground-breaking work in practical ethics, 20 Jan 2002
By A Customer
This book is mighty in scope, and extremely ambitious, not to say courageous in its mission: an attempt to interpret, explain and learn from the moral failures of the twentieth century. I know of no other work which compares as an ethical analysis of history, especially from a writer as learned in modern ethical thinking. Covering topics of such enormity, Glover's analysis inevitably seems rather superficial at times. However, it shows the way forward for a pracitical philosophy and humane politics.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Promising, but short of objective conclusions, 6 Mar 2001
By K. Moss "Kevlet" (Cardiff, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book apparently took ten years to write, and contains much that is thought-provoking. After an initial focus on philosophy (notably Nietzsche) the style of writing relaxes a little and becomes much easier to read. Glover catalogues for us the trends & emphases which influenced warfare and human rights during the 20th Century. His case-studies include: Vietnam, WW1, WW2 Bombing of civilians, Hiroshima, the Nazi Genocide, Rwanda, Stalinist Russia, Cambodia and China. His treatment of these episodes makes compelling, if harrowing reading, and he demonstrates the apparent plasticity of human nature to allow participation in atrocity.

The book raises some very difficult questions, not least of which is the level of compliance of ordinary people in what most would regard as appalling abuses of human-rights. In Glover's thorough resume of history, only a few notable exceptions appear to have tried to go against the flow of the prevailing culture and we are left wondering what awful component of our makeup allows 'decent' human beings to participate in these horrors.

Unfortunately, Glover is unable to provide any workable solutions. Early in the book, he effectively sidelines the idea of a Moral Law (given us by our Creator) as being something of irrelevance or simply unviable in the present intellectual climate. He is therefore unable to provide us with an objective alternative (except for the vague idea of "Moral Imagination") which might prevent human beings from continuing such abuses. He is unable to provide any objective basis for the moral judgements he makes, apart from his own subjective set of standards. He is unable to view the future with anything more concrete than the theme-song from Monty-Python's "Life of Brian". In fact, his conclusions are similar to the intellectual discontinuity which he rightly observes amongst the British Communist Party at the time of WW2.

Read the book! It's a challenging work - but look objectively at his conclusions (or lack of them).

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars please read this book
Ethical thinking at a serious level has gone out of fashion and we can only hope it will come back in. Read more
Published 3 months ago by William Roberts

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark & disturbing, but gripping
Glover's humanity is a highly accessible and equally balanced work on the history and morality of the 20th Century. Read more
Published 11 months ago by P. M. Buttigieg

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