Humanity A Moral History of the 20th Century by Jonathan...

As most people would agree, the 20th century contained some of the bloodiest and most gruesome events ever recorded in history. Why do words such as Hiroshima, Rwanda, The Final Solution, A Great Leap Forward, The Great Purge and so many more spark such vivid images of blood, torture and murder in our minds? And despite those horrific images, what is it that causes us humans time and time again to commit such crimes against humanity? Those are the kinds of questions Jonathan Glover, a critically acclaimed ethics philosopher, tries to answer in the book he had spent over ten years writing, Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century. Through Humanity Glover tries to answer those questions in a way which will give a solution as how we can†¦show more content†¦(Pinker) For instance, Glover’s description of the horrors in My Lai (Vietnam) will resonate with any reader well after he or she have finished the novel: â€Å"They [the American troops] burnt down every house. They raped women and girls and killed them. They stabbed some women in the vagina and disemboweled others†¦ Pregnant women had their stomachs slashed open and were left to die† (Glover 58). Although for some, the My Lai Massacre may seem less important than the Holocaust, for example, because of the smaller number of deaths, Glover does not see it that way. In his eyes, it does not matter how many deaths there were; just the mere fact that humans have let themselves do such obscene acts to other human beings is what matters. But what is even more important than those past events is how humanity, as a whole, can stop events such as the My Lai Massacre from ever happening again. In 1986, the Seville Statement on Violence was convened by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Part of this statement says that â€Å"it is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed into our human nat ure†. Though this may be a widely accepted idea, it is quite obvious that Glover rejects it. He does not let our species off easily; he specifically says that, â€Å"We need to look hard and clearly at some monsters inside us. But this is part of the project of cagingShow MoreRelatedSolution Manual, Test Bank and Instructor Manuals34836 Words   |  140 Pages4th Edition_Marno Verbeek (SM) A History of Modern Psychology, 10th Edition _ Duane P. Schultz, Sydney Ellen Schultz ( IM+TB) A Microscale Approach to Organic Laboratory Techniques, 5th Edition _Donald L. Pavia, George S. Kriz, Gary M. Lampman, Randall G. Engel (IM) A People and a Nation A History of the United States, Brief Edition, Volume I, 9th Edition_Mary Beth Norton, Carol Sheriff, David W. Blight, Howard P. Chudacoff, A People and a Nation A History of the United States, Volume II Since