Becoming evil : how ordinary people commit genocide and mass killing
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Becoming evil : how ordinary people commit genocide and mass killing
Oxford University Press, c2002
- (alk. paper)
Available at 5 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-309) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Political or social groups wanting to commit mass murder on the basis of racial, ethnic or religious differences are never hindered by a lack of willing executioners. In "Becoming Evil", social psychologist James Waller uncovers the internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts of evil. Waller debunks the common explanations for genocide - group think, psychopathology, unique cultures - and offers a more sophisticated and comprehensive psychological view of how anyone can potentially participate in heinous crimes against humanity. He outlines the evolutionary forces that shape human nature, the individual dispositions that are more likely to engage in acts of evil, and the context of cruelty in which these extraordinary acts can emerge. Illustrative eyewitness accounts are presented at the end of each chapter. An important new look at how evil develops, "Becoming Evil" will help us understand such tragedies as the Holocaust and recent terrorist events.
Waller argues that by becoming more aware of the things that lead to extraordinary evil, we will be less likely to be surprised by it and less likely to be unwitting accomplices through our passivity.
Table of Contents
- Preface: "I Couldn't Do This to Someone"
- Part 1: What Are the Origins of Extraordinary Human Evil?
- Introduction: A Place Called Mauthausen
- 1. The Nature of Extraordinary Human Evil
- "Nits Make Lice"
- 2. Killers of Conviction: Groups, Ideology, and Extraordinary Evil
- Dovey's Story
- 3. The "Mad Nazi": Psychopathology, Personality, and Extraordinary Evil
- The Massacre at Babi Yar
- 4. The Dead End of Demonization
- The Invasion of Dili
- Part 2: Beyond Demonization: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Evil
- A Model of Extraordinary Human Evil
- 5. The Nature of Human Nature: Our Ancestral Shadow
- The Tonle Sap Massacre
- 6. Defining the Killers: Identities of the Perpetrators
- Death of a Guatemalan Village
- 7. Immediate Social context: A Culture of Cruelty
- The Church at Ntamara
- 8. Defining the "Other": Social Death of the Victims
- The Safe Area of Srebrenica
- Part 3: What Have We Learned and Why Does It Matter?
- 9. Conclusion: Can We Be Delivered from Extraordinary Evil?
by "Nielsen BookData"