Lexington Books
Pages: 242
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-66691-870-0 • Hardback • October 2022 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-66691-871-7 • eBook • October 2022 • $45.00 • (£30.99)
E. N. Anderson is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside.
Barbara A. Anderson is professor emerita of nursing at Frontier Nursing University.
Chapter 1. Definitions
Chapter 2. Human Constants: Evolution and Conflict
Chapter 3. Histories
Chapter 4. Performing and Projecting Evil
Chapter 5. Evil into Politics
Chapter 6. Moralities
Chapter 7. Sustaining Social Harmony
Grounded in the progressive spirit of tolerance and humanism, Sustaining Social Conflict calls attention to the woes of dehumanization and collective violence, and reminds the reader of the virtues of altruism and empathy, and their evolutionary roles in the reinforcement of group solidarity among humans above all other social animals. In its compelling case for the embodiment of the proverbial good wolf within us, this book incisively categorizes evil that we may better recognize its influence over and mobilization of its enactors, particularly those who are well-meaning. The authors provide an overview of the ecology of human ethics—and their breakdown—across the span of the human timeline, fusing the frameworks of seminal social scientists such as Khaldun with perspectives reflective of and applicable to the time of Covid.
— Alexis Álvarez, New Mexico Public Education Department
Insightful, wide-ranging, and engaging, Sustaining Social Conflict grapples with a critical issue: the interwoven origins of violence, hate, and evil. The authors offer not just explanation, but also solutions—as well as moral considerations the reader will continue to ponder long after finishing the book.
— Alex Hinton, Rutgers University; author of It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US