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Rating: 
Summary: Compelling explanation of origins of hate
Review: Beck credibly explains and illustrates the origins of hatred acted out by both individuals and groups. While the underlying elements show remarkable similarity, group and leader dynamics, of course, enter into hate by groups. I do agree with another reviewer who commented that Beck produces few new explanations of hatred and the resulting behaviors. The book, however, easily kept my interest and used many examples to beautifully illustrate the process that Beck explains. And he does provide some direction for helping to combat anger, hostility, and violence. Anyone interested in this book may benefit from the following notes that I made: 1. I would like to have seen some information about the duration of the benefits from the cognitive studies that Beck refers to.
2. If you're looking for credible evidence to support a belief (that I would love to have) that we're likely to find ways to significantly prevent or eradicate hate by groups of people, you won't find it in this book.
3. While Beck provides thorough explanations of anger, hostility, and violence, you'll find far more useful tools to combat these patterns in both David Burns' "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" (Burns has worked with Beck for more than 15 years) and Albert Ellis' classic "A Guide to Rational Living."
Rating: 
Summary: The evil that we do: more understandable than ever
Review: The simple idea that the way we think about something determines how we feel about it, and how we act on it. Widely considered the father of modern cognitive therapy, Dr. Beck didn't invent this idea, nor is he the only one promoting it. Yet his expression of it, especially in this fine book, is elegant and compelling. There are many powerful and immediately recognizable examples from daily life, showing how we turn hurt into anger into hatred. How our beliefs and thinking patterns gradually imprison us in cages of reactivity. This book helps make our capacity for both good and evil more understandable. Readers of this book who want a more complete understanding of the topics would probably also benefit from a number of the books talking about the evolutionary and physiological origins of violence. Yet, for the part of our dark nature that we have some ability to control, this book makes a powerful and promising statement, and is complete unto itself.
Rating:
Summary: The evil that we do: more understandable than ever
Review: The simple idea that the way we think about something determines how we feel about it, and how we act on it. Widely considered the father of modern cognitive therapy, Dr. Beck didn't invent this idea, nor is he the only one promoting it. Yet his expression of it, especially in this fine book, is elegant and compelling. There are many powerful and immediately recognizable examples from daily life, showing how we turn hurt into anger into hatred. How our beliefs and thinking patterns gradually imprison us in cages of reactivity. This book helps make our capacity for both good and evil more understandable. Readers of this book who want a more complete understanding of the topics would probably also benefit from a number of the books talking about the evolutionary and physiological origins of violence. Yet, for the part of our dark nature that we have some ability to control, this book makes a powerful and promising statement, and is complete unto itself.
Rating: 
Summary: I expected more
Review: What could be more interesting than a book on violence written by the world's leading psychiatrist? That's what I was thinking when I bought the book. Although Beck made some interesting points, very few were original points that I wasn't already familiar with. The book is a slow read and only moderately interesting. For a much more interesting account of violence, read James Gilligan's book VIOLENCE: REFLECTIONS ON A NATIONAL EPIDEMIC. Lee J. Markowitz, Ph.D. student in clinical psychology
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