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Evil: An Investigation Paperback – September 8, 2004

by Lance Morrow (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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Long couched only in theological terms, and popularly personified by the despots of history, the nature of evil has resisted explanation. In this singular survey of this mysterious but all too often palpable force, veteran Time magazine writer Lance Morrow examines the unmistakable ways evil influences our global culture-and how that global culture in turn has magnified evil's menace. Its dramatic reemergence in the national consciousness-against a backdrop of high-tech, sensationalized violence-makes his updated understanding both timely and absolutely necessary. Drawing on examples both obscure and splashed across the headlines, Morrow seeks to understand how evil works, and what purpose, if any, it serves. From the heartrending to the harrowing, from quiet lies to catastrophic acts, his stories are drawn from over thirty years of experience as a revered journalist and essayist. The result is a brilliant synthesis of a lifetime of observation that elegantly illuminates a chronically elusive but fascinating subject.
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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    September 8, 2004
  4. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.64 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0465047556
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0465047550
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A foray over a slippery slope where theologians and philosophers have often tumbled in the effort to define 'evil.'" -- - Boston Herald

"An honest meditation... Morrow is a master of the think piece." -- - The Washington Post Book World

"Lance Morrow's Evil belongs at the top of the must-read lists." -- - The Richmond Times-Dispatch

About the Author

Lance Morrow, twice winner of the National Magazine Award, is a longtime essayist for TIME magazine. He contributes essays and articles to other publications and is the author of eight books, including Evil: An Investigation and The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948. He lives in Chatham, New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (September 8, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465047556
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465047550
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.64 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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Lance Morrow

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Emma Woodhouse
5.0 out of 5 stars I thoroughly enjoyed this book
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2015
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is my impression that Morrow wrote this book so that we might learn the importance of exploring and discussing evil on an ongoing basis. His ideas helped me sort through old, outdated narratives.
3 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very much a true book about the dark side of all humans
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018
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Fascinating book. Very much a psychology of how evil humans are
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Luke Isham
3.0 out of 5 stars A useful description but an unclear solution
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2011
Lance Morrow, essayist and TIME magazine journalist somewhat optimistically tackles the topic of evil in 'Evil: An Investigation' a sort of modern moral survey of evil. I was going to say 'ambitious' but he concedes very early that "my conclusion is that it is ultimately not possible to understand evil" (p3), instead I think the book is 'optimistic' because his philosophical outlook is detached but upbeat. For example, most of his, often depressing, anecdotes, are explained or set in some sort of context. I think Morrow's taxonomy of evil is accurate, even if overall he isn't able to make sense of a world with evil but without God.

Evil: a definition

Morrow recognizes that evil cannot be simply an adjective of novelists or a term for aberrant behavior for sociologists. His dismissal of post-modern subjectivity, as a "dangerous fantasy" (p136), shows that for him evil despite being a moral and metaphysical category is nonetheless very real. Morrow in his stories about modern crime, Balkan atrocities or ancient criminality always puts people front and centre. Evil is disturbing because it is, correctly, for Morrow quoting the poet W. H. Auden "unspectacular and always human" (p16).

The most useful part of Morrow's investigation is his definition of evil. While the term is slippery, it's not impossible to pin down. Morrow intriguily extends Justice Potter Stewart's iconic definition of pornography "I know it when I see it" to "I know it when I feel it. Evil registers itself on the deepest, most primitive faculty of the brain, upon some obscure moral equivalent of our sense of smell." (p28) He then goes on to say it's a sort of "vibration" (p31) constant through history and circumstances, not a part of the world but a distortion, a degradation of us and the world.

Evil is indeed a metaphysical moral category: "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:17). We knows it's there because we see it, we recognize it. "your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). But also unrecognizable in another sense, alien to creation: "What is this you have done? [asks God]" (Genesis 3:13). Morrow goes on to correctly note that evil is a usurpation of God. "Evil is an imitation of God - of God's inscrutable, peremptory mysteriously smiting self. This, again is the evil of a usurping pretender: the insurrection of the negative" (p37). This seems to me to echo the Apostle Paul: "[Jesus] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." (Philippians 2:6)

Why is there evil?

Morrow is clear when describing the horns of our human dilemma, 'evil exists but why?' "Do people choose to do what they do, or are even manifestly evil acts (such as serial killing) predetermined - the wires of slaughter and atrocity and genocide, for example manipulated by other forces? By heredity? By brain chemistry? By God?" (p35) He understands the dimensions of theodicy: "How can there be a God who is 1) all powerful and 2) all good, while 3) evil exists in the world. You can have any two of those propositions, but not all three" (p176).

Perhaps it's an extreme form of rage, he ponders, as demonstrated by the festering emotion of Hitler's Mein Kampf eventually exploding into the Final Solution. Often he notes it is accompanied by and is feed by self deception. When he meets Serbian soldiers during the Balkan wars of the 1990's Morrow wonders "How did the Serbs keep on? How did they explain themselves to themselves" (p60)? Clearly "evil is usually an exercise of power" (p109), the abuse of the vulnerable, the children, those in poverty.

Is there a solution?

If there is place where Morrow stumbles it is in providing a solution. The anecdotes become confusing, for example the closing one about former South African President de Kock, offers little solace in a chapter designed to bring moral closure and hope. He knows he has a problem on his hands; "The academic's story [about a young American soldier killing German prisoners] haunts me a little" (p82).
But the solutions are hopelessly inadequate. For example evil is more than just "a story" (p39), and a "learning experience" (p47). Yes, "shame" (p69) and "more information" (p69) are important parts of resorting justice, love and honor but they cannot staunch the wound he's opened. I was very interguied by the way he suggested literature could be some sort of healing balm, a constant during Job-like storms (p170).

(Also posted on my blog.)
2 people found this helpful
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Richard Dawson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for School Project!
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Outstanding backpack.
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P-J Ezeh
5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Morrow
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2014
I am so trilled to have Lance Morrow's thoughts in a full-length book. I came upon his writings in TIME in the 1980s. Morrow was the reason I would save my last penny to buy TIME those extremely financially challenged student days of mine. The lambency of his prose, the profoundity and yet realism in his thought, and the originality of his views are hard to find elsewhere in today's world. Morrow's Evil (the book for I also read Evil the column those days) brings all this together in one of the few books that truly matter in this anti-intellectual, troubled century. One piece of advice I would like to give is: do not open the book when you do not have enough time. Its power to enthrall is magical. You can't stop once you start reading.
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David
5.0 out of 5 stars Not smug Not arrogant Not easy
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2004
Morrow asks hard questions, real questions about evil. Morrow also states the obvious. The fact that he does state the obvious might turn off the smug and arrogant, but I find it refreshing. The book is also extremely well written and researched. Does evil exist? Yes. And if you disagree, I wish you well during the belly button gazing process.
6 people found this helpful
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Charli V.
3.0 out of 5 stars Investigates Evil to Death
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2008
... it down right beats the concept of Evil into bloody remnants of ash and bits of bone.

I worked on reading this book for three damn months, when normally I can read a book anywhere from a couple of days to a week. I finally gave it up. Don't be drawn in by the title the way I was. It's not what you think. The author analyzes the true meaning of evil chapter after long drawn out chapter. The basis of evil is over-analyzed to death. I read on and on wondering how many ways can you describe evil? Is it really worthy of an entire book? It is what it is... Evil. If a husband cheats on his wife, that isn't evil. That's hoeism. If a husband murders his wife and children, well now that is evil.

I hate to say it, but evil is simple to understand and it happens so often, I think we've become desensitized to it. In this aspect, is it really necessary to write a book about not the evil done but rather what evil is? To make it interesting, the author should have given way more exciting examples of evil acts. We general population people-and I laugh here- we like colors and pictures. If you can't put pictures in the book, at least paint them with your words. Every other word is some long unrecognizable word with far too may letters in them to do any good for regular folks who don't bury their faces in dictionaries. The only reason I could understand most of the words is because I'm a writer and so I keep my face buried in a dictionary. LOL I am pretty intelligent, but I grew wary of the constant use of big words and the the on and on about the meaning of evil. Does it really matter the perception of evil? The only thing people care about is evil in action.

This book... how can I describe? It's like the person you invite to a party and immediately regret it. This book goes on and on like the dude you mistakenly invited who just won't shut up and ends up turning what should be a short story into a long saga. The author bats around the theory and analysis of evil until we just don't care anymore. It's entertaining- the historical and theological sizing up of evil in everything from politics to serial killers, but it deserves an article in Time Magazine at best. I just wanted to say, "Okay okay! I believe you! It's all so damn evil, what you say! Shut the hell up, already!"

Don't misconstrue, the book is interesting. Really. I know after all the things I've said, you're wondering how I could conclude with it being interesting. But it's interesting for a certain group of people. If you can get past a few issues, you will enjoy the book. But if you are not a fan of reading, if you are a newcomer to the reading scene, if you like pictures with your words then I wouldn't suggest this book.
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