In the face of an uncertain and dangerous world, Americans yearn for a
firm moral compass, a clear set of ethical guidelines. But as history
shows, by reducing complex situations to simple cases of right or wrong
we often go astray.
In Morality's Muddy Waters, historian George Cotkin offers a clarion
call on behalf of moral complexity. Revisiting several defining moments
in the twentieth century--the American bombing of civilians during World
War II, the My Lai massacre, racism in the South, capital punishment,
the invasion of Iraq--Cotkin chronicles how historical figures have
grappled with the problem of evil and moral responsibility--sometimes
successfully, oftentimes not. In the process, he offers a wide-ranging
tour of modern American history.
Taken together, Cotkin maintains, these episodes reveal that the central
concepts of morality--evil, empathy, and virtue--are both necessary and
troubling. Without empathy, for example, we fail to inhabit the world of
others; with it, we sometimes elevate individual suffering over
political complexities. For Cotkin, close historical analysis may help
reenergize these concepts for ethical thinking and acting. Morality's
Muddy Waters argues for a moral turn in the way we study and think
about history, maintaining that even when answers to ethical dilemmas
prove elusive, the act of grappling with them is invaluable.
