A provocative look at how cowardice has been understood from ancient times to the present Coward. It's a grave insult, likely to provoke anger, shame, even violence. But what exactly is cowardice? When terrorists are called cowards, does it mean the same as when the term is applied to soldiers? And what, if anything, does cowardice have to do with the rest of us? Bringing together sources from court-martial cases to literary and film classics such as Dante's Inferno, The Red Badge of Courage, and The Thin Red Line, Cowardice recounts the great harm that both cowards and the fear of seeming cowardly have done, and traces the idea of cowardice’s power to its evolutionary roots. But Chris Walsh also shows that this power has faded, most dramatically on the battlefield. Misconduct that earlier might have been punished as cowardice has more recently often been treated medically, as an adverse reaction to trauma, and Walsh explores a parallel therapeutic shift that reaches beyond war, into the realms of politics, crime, philosophy, religion, and love. Yet, as Walsh indicates, the therapeutic has not altogether triumphed—contempt for cowardice endures, and he argues that such contempt can be a good thing. Courage attracts much more of our attention, but rigorously understanding cowardice may be more morally useful, for it requires us to think critically about our duties and our fears, and it helps us to act ethically when fear and duty conflict. Richly illustrated and filled with fascinating stories and insights, Cowardice is the first sustained analysis of a neglected but profound and pervasive feature of human experience.

While some western media nicknamed him “bulldozer,” and one opposition politician in Tanzania called him “petty dictator,” some critics have called him the “Trump of East Africa.” His bullish and sadistic statements and actions have qualified him as a modern day dictator on the rise. It calls for an immediate local and international action in order to arrest the situation before it worsens and destabilises the whole of Eastern and Southern Africa. In a similar manner that Italy’s Benito Mussolini, Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Zaire’s Mobutu Seseseko and Uganda’s Idi Amin rose to power and used it to crash independent thought and crumble their countries, turning their citizens into subjects, John Pombe Magufuli, has made Tanzania infamous for the wrong reasons. In just three years, he has almost successfully attempted to replace democracy with a one-man rule, becoming an embodiment of brutality, nepotism, authoritarianism, grand corruption, diplomatic exclusion-ism, extrajudicial killings, abductions and arbitrary torture of civilians; turning East Africa’s most peaceful and stable country into a police state and a “skunk of the world.” His distorted approach to leadership and development, and his disregard of democracy, human rights and rule of law have turned him into a bully that seeks religious obedience from everyone, and he uses fear as his main tool of leadership. He terrorises the parliament, the opposition, the media, the diplomatic and international community, his own party, Muslims, journalists, activists, religious leaders, the business community, the judiciary and others - in a bid to establish himself as a leader that must be feared and never dared. This book exposes, through analysis, the root of this sadistic leadership. It digs deep into the dictator’s behaviour and leadership style. It encourages everyone to stand firm and overcome threats imposed by this despot. It awakens governance institutions to do their noble and constitutional task, and never allow similar mistakes that paved the way for this situation to prevail. The good news is that the dictator is timid and cowardly. His use of fear as a leadership tool testifies to his cowardice and insecurity. Proactive action from local and international partners in development will help to stop the dictator from causing further damage - putting an end to his autocratic rule as he seeks to extend it. There is every indication that, given a chance, he would never leave power voluntarily. Civilised people do not have to wait for that to happen. The world does not need another Idi Amin in East Africa. There is no need for the world to watch East Africa’s most peaceful nation sinking into irreparable, perpetual mess as it did with Rwanda prior to the 1994 genocide. With this book, I am stepping in to offer an informed analysis that may be part of the solution. I am laying a ground for a further follow up and research on the matter.

What happens when an organization with the express goal of defending individual rights and liberties starts silencing its own board? Lawyer and social critic Wendy Kaminer has intimate knowledge of the ensuing conflict between independent thinking and group solidarity. In this concise and provocative book, she tells an inside story of dramatic ethical decline at the American Civil Liberties Union, using it as a poignant case study of conformity and other vices of association. InWorst Instincts, Kaminer calls on her experience as a dissident member of the ACLU national board to illustrate the essential virtues of dissent in preserving the moral character of any group. When an organization committed to free speech succumbs to pressure to suppress internal criticism and disregard or “spin” the truth, it offers important lessons for other associations, corporations, and governments, where such pressure must surely be rampant. Kaminer clarifies the common thread linking a continuum of minor failures and major disasters, from NASA to Jonestown. She reveals the many vices endemic to groups and exemplified by the ACLU’s post-9/11hypocrisies, including conformity and suppression of dissent in the interests of collegiality, solidarity, or group ℑ self-censorship by members anxious to avoid ostracism or marginalization by the group; elevation of loyalty to the institution over loyalty to the institution’s ideals; substitution of the group’s idealized self-image for the reality of its behavi∨ ad hominem attacks against critics; and deference to cults of personality. From a renowned advocate of civil liberties,Worst Instinctsis a surprising story of ethical meltdown at a revered organization that has abandoned its core principles. It is a powerful book that has much to tell us about the land mines of groupthink.

The book offers the first comprehensive account of the debate on true courage as it was raging in ancient Greece, from the times when the immensely influential Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were composed, to the period of the equally influential author, Aristotle. The many voices that contribute to this debate include poets, authors of ancient dramas and comedies, historians, politicians and philosophers. The book traces the origin of the earliest ideal of a courageous hero in the epic poems of Homer (8th century BCE), and faithfully records its transformations in later authors, which range from an emphatic denial of the Homeric standards of courage (as in comedies of Aristophanes and some Dialogues of Plato) to the strong revisionist tendencies of Aristotle, who attempts to restore genuine courage to its traditional place as an exclusively martial, male virtue. Without attempting to cover the whole of the Western history, the book is able to explore the most important primary Greek sources on the subject matter in greater details, and provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the changes in both popular and philosophical conceptualizations of the standards of courage from the Archaic period to the middle of the 4th century BCE. A deeper understanding of the history of the debate on courage should help to shape the modern discussions as well, as it becomes obvious that many of the questions on courage and cowardice that are still raised by the contemporary authors from different fields, have been thoroughly considered during the early stages of Greek culture. The book seeks to undermine a common stereotype of a single, unified view on courage and cowardice in Ancient Greece and shows that the current debates on what constitutes genuine courageous character can be traced to the various direct and indirect discussions on this subject matter by the ancient authorities.

This resource answers questions about defeating timidity and cowardice and helping others who are plagued with this enemy of the soul. (Christian)

Few of us spend much time thinking about courage, but we know it when we see it--or do we? Is it best displayed by marching into danger, making the charge, or by resisting, enduring without complaint? Is it physical or moral, or both? Is it fearless, or does it involve subduing fear? Abner Small, a Civil War soldier, was puzzled by what he called the "mystery of bravery"; to him, courage and cowardice seemed strangely divorced from character and will. It is this mystery, just as puzzling in our day, that William Ian Miller unravels in this engrossing meditation. Miller culls sources as varied as soldiers' memoirs, heroic and romantic literature, and philosophical discussions to get to the heart of courage--and to expose its role in generating the central anxieties of masculinity and manhood. He probes the link between courage and fear, and explores the connection between bravery and seemingly related states: rashness, stubbornness, madness, cruelty, fury; pride and fear of disgrace; and the authority and experience that minimize fear. By turns witty and moving, inquisitive and critical, his inquiry takes us from ancient Greece to medieval Europe, to the American Civil War, to the Great War and Vietnam, with sidetrips to the schoolyard, the bedroom, and the restaurant. Whether consulting Aristotle or private soldiers, Miller elicits consistently compelling insights into a condition as endlessly interesting as it is elusive.

"Breathtaking... so much more than a thriller." —Josh Malerman, bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie "Hits the thriller trifecta: a natural disaster, danger around every corner, and compelling well-drawn characters." —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author A one-more-page, up-all-night story about two strangers who need each other's help to survive the night after a devastating earthquake shakes Los Angeles. Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild. Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town. As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate and an act of violence. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one goal: just get home. “A flat-out thriller [that is] also smart and insightful on timely, important ideas…. Heartbreaking and complicated in the best way… This is addictive reading that changes you as you turn the pages and stays with you long after you’ve finished.” —Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is