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A review by em_brebs
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
2.0
2.5.
So I wanted to read more nonfiction this year, and this was… fine. Nothing spectacular, and I think that it worked best when it was telling the narrative and not arguing about honor (which, like, I get was actually the whole point of the book, but, for me, ended up being repetitious and kind of boring.) Personally, the amount that I enjoyed the book kind of vacillated. Some chapters were significantly more interesting than others, for me. The writing was fine, some parts were super boring, some parts super interesting. I'm indifferent, mostly.
This book examines three historical (and one current) examples of practices that went out of favor for reasons related to honor. The examples are: dueling in England, foot-binding in China, and Atlantic slave trading. The current example discussed is "honor killings" in Pakistan. A chapter is dedicated to each of these topics and conceptions of honor and its importance are also woven in.
IN DEPTH DISCUSSION!!!!!!
So, for me, the first and last chapters were kind of interminably boring. They existed a lot more in theory land (as far as I could tell and excepting the last two small stories at the end of the last chapter.) I personally preferred the chapters on foot-binding and honor killings.
Foot-binding, because I had a good amount of background knowledge regarding Chinese history of the time, and also it is just a tradition I find super intriguing and also so very separate from how I live my life. Learning the motivations behind why it started (fidelity) and kind of how it spread– it was all just really intriguing.
Also interesting, and more heartbreaking (perhaps because it is more current) was the chapter about honor killings. It worked really well and I felt like it worked more in a tangible way than some of the other chapters (and was more powerful, for that reason.)
The dueling chapter was probably the least interesting for me. I just really couldn't get into it and basically skimmed close to the entire thing.
The one on slavery I think I would have enjoyed more if I hadn't currently been studying it (meaning that it basically felt like homework, which it wasn't, but it felt that way.) Maybe I'll revisit that part of this book another time, but for now it took some effort. (Though the parts about the influence of the Quakers were interesting.)
The writing was a little bit bland, and, again, felt a little bit repetitive? Like, there was a lot of rehashing around the specific kinds of honor (or things that didn't exactly qualify as honor, in here.) I understand that this was meant to be a persuasive piece, but I more wanted to be entertained and informed than persuaded?
Aaaaaaand that's all I have to say. This took me a long time to read and I skimmed lots of it and just found the majority of it pretty boring. The parts that worked, however, I thought were educational and interesting and well done. So, I don't know, but I'm glad that I read it if only for "hey listen to this thing I kind of understand" kind of value.
FFFFIIIIINNNNN!!!!!!!!!!
Ehh: 78%
So I wanted to read more nonfiction this year, and this was… fine. Nothing spectacular, and I think that it worked best when it was telling the narrative and not arguing about honor (which, like, I get was actually the whole point of the book, but, for me, ended up being repetitious and kind of boring.) Personally, the amount that I enjoyed the book kind of vacillated. Some chapters were significantly more interesting than others, for me. The writing was fine, some parts were super boring, some parts super interesting. I'm indifferent, mostly.
This book examines three historical (and one current) examples of practices that went out of favor for reasons related to honor. The examples are: dueling in England, foot-binding in China, and Atlantic slave trading. The current example discussed is "honor killings" in Pakistan. A chapter is dedicated to each of these topics and conceptions of honor and its importance are also woven in.
IN DEPTH DISCUSSION!!!!!!
So, for me, the first and last chapters were kind of interminably boring. They existed a lot more in theory land (as far as I could tell and excepting the last two small stories at the end of the last chapter.) I personally preferred the chapters on foot-binding and honor killings.
Foot-binding, because I had a good amount of background knowledge regarding Chinese history of the time, and also it is just a tradition I find super intriguing and also so very separate from how I live my life. Learning the motivations behind why it started (fidelity) and kind of how it spread– it was all just really intriguing.
Also interesting, and more heartbreaking (perhaps because it is more current) was the chapter about honor killings. It worked really well and I felt like it worked more in a tangible way than some of the other chapters (and was more powerful, for that reason.)
The dueling chapter was probably the least interesting for me. I just really couldn't get into it and basically skimmed close to the entire thing.
The one on slavery I think I would have enjoyed more if I hadn't currently been studying it (meaning that it basically felt like homework, which it wasn't, but it felt that way.) Maybe I'll revisit that part of this book another time, but for now it took some effort. (Though the parts about the influence of the Quakers were interesting.)
The writing was a little bit bland, and, again, felt a little bit repetitive? Like, there was a lot of rehashing around the specific kinds of honor (or things that didn't exactly qualify as honor, in here.) I understand that this was meant to be a persuasive piece, but I more wanted to be entertained and informed than persuaded?
Aaaaaaand that's all I have to say. This took me a long time to read and I skimmed lots of it and just found the majority of it pretty boring. The parts that worked, however, I thought were educational and interesting and well done. So, I don't know, but I'm glad that I read it if only for "hey listen to this thing I kind of understand" kind of value.
FFFFIIIIINNNNN!!!!!!!!!!
Ehh: 78%