Confronting Evil in History

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-009-10842-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 75 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 113 g

Reihe: Elements in Historical Theory and Practice

Evil is sometimes thought to be incomprehensible and abnormal, falling outside of familiar historical and human processes. And yet the twentieth century was replete with instances of cruelty on a massive scale, including systematic torture, murder, and enslavement of ordinary, innocent human beings. These overwhelming atrocities included genocide, totalitarianism, the Holocaust, and the Holodomor. This Element underlines the importance of careful, truthful historical investigation of the complicated realities of dark periods in human history; the importance of understanding these events in terms that give attention to the human experience of the people who were subject to them and those who perpetrated them; the question of whether the idea of 'evil' helps us to confront these periods honestly; and the possibility of improving our civilization's resilience in the face of the impulses towards cruelty to other human beings that have so often emerged.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Little, Daniel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtswissenschaft: Theorie und Methoden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Totalitarismus & Diktaturen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte Deutsche Geschichte: Holocaust

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; 1. Philosophy and twentieth-century evil; 2. Historicizing human culture; 3. Evil in the twentieth century: the Final Solution; 4. Truth telling and myth making; 5. Philosophy after the evils of the twentieth century.