A review by rubel
Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century by Jonathan Glover

4.0

My first non-fiction in a while. It's a very intense book, covering major atrocities of the twentieth century and trying to connect the dots from smaller ones to larger. The idea is to find parallels. Do transitions such as going from allowing a few "accidental" civilian targets in WW2 bombing -> encouraging firebombing of cities -> Hiroshima & Nagasaki mirror the transitions of dehumanizing prisoners -> coming to accept torture as ok? What combinations of fear and intimidation kept people from speaking up and helping under Stalin and Hitler and Mao? And why did some people keep small bites of their humanity while others were liberated to cruelty?

Anyway, a heavy book, but very readable. I enjoyed learning the history more than his philosophy.