Extraordinary Evil

Wow. I read this book under it's Canadian release name, "Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide", which appears more fitting to the subject material. Under either name, this book takes the difficult issue of genocide and parallels it with the serious problem of bullying. Through its use of the "bully circle", it demonstrates the way governments and news media outside the conflict, as well as individuals within the conflict, can make choices to protect the defenseless or perpetuate the abuse. From my perspective as a reformed bully, this book shows the impact these choices make on millions of lives in both arenas. I would recommend this as a great text for high school sociology courses and a must-read for high school counselors, but it also serves as an excellent primer for foreign policy where claims of "conflict" serve as a smokescreen for "extraordinary evil".

This book should be a must read. The ideas presented in this book relate directly to the happenings in our world today in the school yard and on the world scene. Those who ignore history are destined to repeat it and I hope the concepts in the this small book can help us to be more aware and less apt to repeat some of the horrors of our world.