Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil

Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil
Title Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil PDF eBook
Author Fred Emil Katz
Publisher State University of New York Press
Pages 174
Release 2010-03-31
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1438408498

Download Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

What is it in the behavioral makeup of ordinary people, operating in the course of ordinary daily living, that lends itself to participating in horrendous activities — and doing so at times with zeal, at times with joy, at times without duress? Katz demonstrates that we do not need any special behavioral equipment for doing evil. The very same behaviors can take us in both directions for either living humanely and decently or for doing evil. This book demonstrates how some of these processes work, and sensitizes us to the potential for evil in our ongoing daily activities. This knowledge about ordinary behavior can empower us to take charge of our own direction, and help us turn away from beguilings of evil when they come our way.

Becoming Evil

Becoming Evil
Title Becoming Evil PDF eBook
Author James Waller
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 480
Release 2002-06-27
Genre Social Science
ISBN 0190287527

Download Becoming Evil Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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.

Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil

Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil
Title Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil PDF eBook
Author Fred E. Katz
Publisher SUNY Press
Pages 154
Release 1993-07-01
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 9780791414422

Download Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Posits that our most ordinary behavior can lead us to participate in the most horrendous acts, perhaps even with zeal and joy, but certainly without remorse. Using the Holocaust as the pivotal example, examines the lives of the head of Auschwitz and a physician there, then the life of an exemplary physician to show the similarity; an American officer in Vietnam is also examined. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ordinary People as Mass Murderers

Ordinary People as Mass Murderers
Title Ordinary People as Mass Murderers PDF eBook
Author O. Jensen
Publisher Springer
Pages 241
Release 2008-11-03
Genre History
ISBN 0230583563

Download Ordinary People as Mass Murderers Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Since the 1990s scholars have focused heavily on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and have presented a complex and diverse picture of perpetrators. This book provides a unique overview of the current state of research on perpetrators. The overall focus is on the key question that it still disputed: How do ordinary people become mass murderers?

Lessons and Legacies VII

Lessons and Legacies VII
Title Lessons and Legacies VII PDF eBook
Author Dagmar Herzog
Publisher Northwestern University Press
Pages 453
Release 1991
Genre History
ISBN 0810123711

Download Lessons and Legacies VII Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

"In the courtroom and the classroom, in popular media, public policy, and scholarly pursuits, the Holocaust-its origins, its nature, and its implications-remains very much a matter of interest, debate, and controversy. Arriving at a time when a new generation must come to terms with the legacy of the Holocaust or forever lose the benefit of its historical, social, and moral lessons, this volume offers a richly varied, deeply informed perspective on the practice, interpretation, and direction of Holocaust research now and in the future. In their essays the authors-an international group including eminent senior scholars as well those who represent the future of the field-set the agenda for Holocaust studies in the coming years, even as they give readers the means for understanding today's news and views of the Holocaust, whether in court cases involving victims and perpetrators; international, national, and corporate developments; or fictional, documentary, and historical accounts. Several of the essays-such as one on nonarmed "amidah" or resistance and others on the role of gender in the behavior of perpetrators and victims-provide innovative and potentially significant interpretive frameworks for the field of Holocaust studies. Others; for instance, the rounding up of Jews in Italy, Nazi food policy in Eastern Europe, and Nazi anti-Jewish scholarship, emphasize the importance of new sources for reconstructing the historical record. Still others, including essays on the 1964 Frankfurt trial of Auschwitz guards and on the response of the Catholic Church to the question of German guilt, bring a new depth and sophistication to highly charged, sharply politicized topics. Together these essays will inform the future of the Holocaust in scholarly research and in popular understanding."--De l'éditeur.

Delivered from Evil

Delivered from Evil
Title Delivered from Evil PDF eBook
Author Ron Franscell
Publisher Fair Winds Press
Pages 273
Release 2011-01-01
Genre True Crime
ISBN 1610594940

Download Delivered from Evil Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A 12-year-old boy cowers in his closet while a lunatic killer slaughters his family . . . a nursing student unwittingly opens her home to the serial killer on her front porch . . . an 11-year-old girl drifts alone at sea on a flimsy cork raft for almost four days after a mass murderer kills her vacationing family aboard a chartered yacht . . . a brave firefighter suddenly finds himself in the crosshairs of a racist sniper almost nine stories above the ground . . . And, astonishingly, they all survived. From Howard Unruh’s 1949 shooting rampage through a quiet New Jersey neighborhood to Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee’s reign of terror in 2002, the corpses piled up and few lived to tell the horror. Now, award-winning journalist Ron Franscell explores the wounded hearts and minds of the ordinary people these monsters couldn’t kill. His mesmerizing accounts crackle with gritty details that put the reader in the midst of the carnage—and offer a front-row seat on the complex, painful process of surviving the rest of their haunted lives. In intimate, gripping prose, Franscell takes the reader on a pulse-pounding dash through the murky intersection of pure evil and the potency of the human spirit. This journey into the darkest corners of the American crime-scape is a penetrating work of literary journalism by a writer hailed as one of the most powerful new voices in true crime.

Ordinary Men

Ordinary Men
Title Ordinary Men PDF eBook
Author Christopher R. Browning
Publisher Harper Collins
Pages 308
Release 2013-04-16
Genre History
ISBN 0062037757

Download Ordinary Men Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews.