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Title details for Beautiful Souls by Eyal Press - Available

Beautiful Souls

Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times

by Eyal Press
Sean Runnette
Audiobook
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On the Swiss border with Austria in 1938, a police captain refuses to enforce a law barring Jewish refugees from entering his country. In the Balkans half a century later, a Serb from the war-blasted city of Vukovar defies his superiors in order to save the lives of Croats. At the height of the Second Intifada, a member of Israel's most elite military unit informs his commander he doesn't want to serve in the occupied territories.
Fifty years after Hannah Arendt examined the dynamics of conformity in her seminal account of the Eichmann trial, Beautiful Souls explores the flipside of the banality of evil, mapping out what impels ordinary people to defy the sway of authority and convention. Through the dramatic stories of unlikely resisters who feel the flicker of conscience when thrust into morally compromising situations, Eyal Press shows that the boldest acts of dissent are often carried out not by radicals seeking to overthrow the system but by true believers who cling with unusual fierceness to their convictions. Drawing on groundbreaking research by moral psychologists and neuroscientists, Beautiful Souls culminates with the story of a financial industry whistleblower who loses her job after refusing to sell a toxic product she rightly suspects is being misleadingly advertised. At a time of economic calamity and political unrest, this deeply reported work of narrative journalism examines the choices and dilemmas we all face when our principles collide with the loyalties we harbor and the duties we are expected to fulfill.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 28, 2012

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781452628073
      • File size: 206732 KB
      • Duration: 07:10:41

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Eyal Press profiles four people who refused to go along with evil or wrongdoing, from refusing to grant Jews refuge from the Nazis to selling a Ponzi scheme. Sean Runnette gives this thoughtfully inquiring book an appropriately thoughtful and expressive narration. He gives each sentence its proper weight, making the sense clear, making the words count, though at times his careful weighting of phrases leads him to go too slowly and become a little ponderous. His sensitive take on the pain and turmoil of those profiled mirrors that of the author. However, when he's called on to pronounce German, in the first section, his efforts range from awkward to incomprehensible. But overall, he gives a quietly clear and affecting performance of an analytic yet heartfelt work. W.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 12, 2011
      In his latest, journalist Press (Absolute Convictions) explores what compels people to act according to their conscience when faced with a moral dilemma in dangerous circumstances. In 1938, a Swiss police captain allows Jewish refugees to cross into “neutral” Switzerland, defying orders that the border be closed. During the Balkan conflict, in 1991, a Serb disobeys his superiors to save the lives of Croats from his hometown, the war-torn city of Vukovar. A financial adviser in Houston loses her job when she refuses to sell a toxic product she rightly suspects of being a Ponzi scheme. In a particularly compelling vignette, an Israeli soldier in an elite military unit refuses to serve in the occupied territories during the second intifada. Drawing on research by psychologists, sociologists, political activists and theorists (such as Susan Sontag and Hannah Arendt), and neuroscientists, Press reveals that the boldest acts of defiance are often made by ordinary people who regard the ideals and values of their societies to be inviolable. This thought-provoking and moving narrative highlights the different ways people react to moral quandaries and, at its best, makes us question the role our own passivity or acquiescence plays in allowing unconscionable acts to happen on our watch. Agent: Sarah Chal-fant, the Wylie Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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