I can't recommend "The Gulag Archipelago" with a clear conscience, because I haven't finished it, but Solzhenitsyn gives a vivid picture of the social nature of "evil", of a people forcing each other into being their worst selves.
Speaking of Good and Evil, I am currently reading Ron Rosenbaum's In Defense of Love and have previously read his excellent and profound, Explaining Hitler (to which In Defense of Love is sort of a sequel).
I have mixed feelings about In Defense of Love. I think RR says that he anti-scientism but not anti-science. Without really knowing the literature, it seems some of his disdain for the research he cites seems reasonable. However, I resist the notion that love is necessarily beyond science. I'd love to hear you and Robert Wright discuss this.
The six I have read on this list are all fantastic!
you are very well-read!
I like books! Miss doing my book on the month feature. Will get back to it next year.
which have you read?
Another you might like is Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, by Jonathan Glover.
Excellent recommendation. (But such a grim book!)
I can't recommend "The Gulag Archipelago" with a clear conscience, because I haven't finished it, but Solzhenitsyn gives a vivid picture of the social nature of "evil", of a people forcing each other into being their worst selves.
Good list. “Ordinary Men” and “Machete Season” are worth reading too.
Speaking of Good and Evil, I am currently reading Ron Rosenbaum's In Defense of Love and have previously read his excellent and profound, Explaining Hitler (to which In Defense of Love is sort of a sequel).
I have mixed feelings about In Defense of Love. I think RR says that he anti-scientism but not anti-science. Without really knowing the literature, it seems some of his disdain for the research he cites seems reasonable. However, I resist the notion that love is necessarily beyond science. I'd love to hear you and Robert Wright discuss this.