Beautiful Souls

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

By: Eyal Press

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

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.

©2012 Eyal Press (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"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." ( Publishers Weekly)

The Path of Conscience

By illustrating stories of those who followed their conscience over the dictates of Nazi border rules, powerful finance companies, the Israeli Defense Force, and the interrogation process at Guantanamo Bay, the author asks, "Who are these people? Who does such a thing in the face of the harsh consequences and risks they will have to endure?" We get to know the whistle blowers who are unknown heroes, who suffered for following their conscience, and who chose a moral path in spite of the obstacles, and who were not rewarded for doing so. The author then asks, "Was it worth it?" The answers from these brave souls bring us closer to our own humanity. This is an excellent book for its inquiry into the tensions between organizations and the non-conformists who listen to their conscience instead of going along with the group.

Interesting book

I liked this book. Why I liked was that Eyal Press explains in deep detail on the morals of a person on how far they will go to help those in need or risk losing their job to solve a wrong doing that they know is wrong and will go to great lengths to fight the company or person.

Certain things I had to pay attention more on was the fact that the author does get you hooked than takes you on a new subject and you have to switch gears to understand whats happening next.

Overall, this book is interesting about how it covers real events in history during the dark time and how people were responding to one another.

Interesting but underwhelming

Interesting. A worthwhile and straightforward read - heavy handed in unusual ways but weak in the places the book needs it most - underwhelming overall.

I'm left feeling that I want to read better written works on the topic. Terrible narration doesn't help me to recommend this title in audiobook form.