Moral Courage

Rating:
Summary: An amazing examination of what it takes to be a hero
Review: Our pop culture-saturated society has seen its definition of heroism narrowed to the actions of "superheroes", or at the very least to borderline impossible acts of physical courage. What this exceptional book suggests is that we can all be heroes through acts of moral courage. The book features a number of fascinating examples of everyday people who saw that a situation in their lives was wrong, weighed the risks of taking and not taking action, and overcame both the fear of and actual hardships to do the right thing.

My favorite stories in the book are of those people who suffered negative consequences for taking a stand against something wrong but have experienced no regrets for acting as they did (for example, the high school student in Massachusetts who blew the whistle on some friends who she knew were plotting a Columbine-style attack but was held responsible for not acting sooner). The dilemmas in these stories are the stuff of great fiction; the fact that so many people chose to act heroically despite the consequences that they faced before and after the fact makes for very compelling reading.

Some might fault the book for being a bit dry in spots, and it might sell more copies if it had the relentlessly upbeat tone of many self-help books. But the writer's journalistic training serves him well here; this is a book about idealistic action firmly grounded in the details of everyday life. It is a tremendously inspiring, truly thought-provoking book that one would love to see as required reading in classrooms and employee training sessions everywhere.