Evil: A Primer: A History of a Bad Idea from Beelzebub to Bin Laden

by William Hart

Book Overview

"Today our nation saw evil." - President George W. Bush, September 11th 2001 Evil! Like a zombie back from the grave, it has arisen--a word many of us had long ago relegated to Sunday sermons, video games and horror flicks. But of course, evil is not old fashioned, nor has it ever gone away, and may be as robust as ever. So what is evil? Does it exist? Veteran journalist Bill Hart tries to drag evil out of the darkness and hold it up to the light...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312312814
• ISBN13: 9780312312817
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

An excellent and thoughtful survey of evil

I found this lovely exploration of evil to be sincerely thoughtful and very interesting. True, the author is wise enough to point his readers towards possible sources and understandings of evil, but he would be foolhardy to pose a definitive answer as to why evil exists in the human experience. For those readers who are uncomfortable with having to balance the paradoxes of evil within human theologies, this definitely is a book that will be most unsatisfactory. If, however, you enjoy a good jaunt through many various areas of human thought and belief around the issues of evil, this book is sure to be amusing, informative, and intriguing. Mr. Hart's offers a solidly well-written book on a subject that is often ignored, hidden and denied by the fearful.

Vastly learned book, but a light touch

William Hart's bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. He has clearly done his research. Yet the book is written with a light touch. He describes why evil both fascinates and repels, and considers evil in its awful destructive aspects and its naughty aspects. In describing naughty evil, Hart's sense of humor ripens and the book has some delightful passages that made me laugh out loud. I read the entire book in a couple of hours and it filled me with a desire to follow up the biblography and learn more about the pressing subject of evil. Hart is to be commended for making reading about evil fun. He covers a lot of weighty scholarship in vivid delightful prose. For anyone looking for an introduction to the subject of evil, I cannot recommend a better book. Hart has written a book that is both confectionary and substantial, a rare accomplishment.

The evil of our time is the loss of consciouness to evil.

William Hart has made an attempt to define what Evil is and what is its source. He gives an overview of how man,both secularly and religiously ,has attempted to deal with evil from the time when he first began to build societies ,up to the present time. Most people of faith,regardless of the form or the time period,believe that man was created by their God,and were given a free will to do right or wrong.The choices men make is up to them and they will be held responsible for their actions. This has been fundamental in all of the faiths of the western world and other faiths throughout mankind's attempt to build societies and construct principles to live by in order to survive and deal with one another justly. As the author shows,it has been a hard struggle and man himself has been his greatest challenge. All attempts to find some reason, other than ourselves ,for the things that happen when man takes it upon himself to be Supreme;has throughout the ages,proven to be futile. Scientists,Psychologists,and others who take the secularist route of making themselves the Supreme Being have continually tried to find a reason for and a remedy to deal with Evil have struggled to no avail. If they were to search likewise for Love, they would have similar success. The author gives example after example of Evil and its consequences and in every case,though he does not dwell on it,one can see that the source of the Evil has been mankind casting aside all idea of any Supreme power higher than himself;and taken it upon himself to rationalize his actions.One cannot find ,in all history, any instance where this has succeeded. When Evil is unleashed on a grand scale ,the results can be catastrophic as we saw under Communism,which was called Diabolical Materialism or under Nazism. One must also remember ,that even people who believe that there is no such thing as a Supreme Being,have taken on a belief. Here we saw man assume the role of Supreme Being,and refuting any other higher authority or concept. I agree with the other reviewer,when he suggests that the author seemed to lose interest in looking for that magic key to unravelling Evil and turned to other stuff to wind up the book. I believe the author has really told us that; "There, not much point in looking for something that doesn't exist";and personally I think he got it just about right.

Pass it on

A wonderful book. Get 2 copies and pass one on to a Congressman, a right wing evangelist or any other religious fanatics you know.