Becoming Evil

Description

Preface: "I Couldn't Do This to Someone"Part 1: What Are the Origins of Extraordinary Human Evil? Introduction: A Place Called Mauthausen1. The Nature of Extraordinary Human Evil"Nits Make Lice"2. Killers of Conviction: Groups, Ideology, and Extraordinary EvilDovey's Story3. The "Mad Nazi": Psychopathology, Personality, and Extraordinary EvilThe Massacre at Babi Yar4. The Dead End of DemonizationThe Invasion of DiliPart 2: Beyond Demonization: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Evil A Model of Extraordinary Human Evil5. The Nature of Human Nature: Our Ancestral ShadowThe Tonle Sap Massacre6. Defining the Killers: Identities of the PerpetratorsDeath of a Guatemalan Village7. Immediate Social context: A Culture of CrueltyThe Church at Ntamara8. Defining the "Other": Social Death of the VictimsThe Safe Area of SrebrenicaPart 3: What Have We Learned and Why Does It Matter? 9. Conclusion: Can We Be Delivered from Extraordinary Evil?Genocide Warning: Sudan

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 this book, 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 what he believes is 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.

First Sentence

While a visiting professor at the Catholic University in Eichstatt, Germany, I took a Saturday train from nearby Munich to the small Austrian town of Mauthausen, an idyllic market community that lies just fourteen miles east of Linz and nuzzles peacefully along the north bank of the Danube.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass KillingOxford University Press, USA2002-06-27
• Becoming EvilOxford University Press2002-01-01
• Becoming EvilOxford University Press, USA2005-08-11
• Becoming EvileBookOxford University Press2007-01-01