The Failures of Ethics

Reviews / Votes

The best parts of The Failures of Ethics reflect Roth's acute sense of the moral implications and demands of his field. * Jacob Howland, University of Tulsa, Holocaust and Genocide Studies * Roth's philosophical contribution to attempting to understand the Holocaust and its implications is impressive not only in his productivity, but in his scope. His diverse interests are signalled in the important plurality of his book's title: there are multiple failures and therefore multiple ways in which to think about how they might be countered. * Adam Brown, Journal of Religious History, Religious History Association * [A] significant resource on Holocaust and genocide scholarship. The book is Roth's recent contribution to ... his staggering body of research on the Holocaust. The Failures of Ethics will be suitable to university professors, students, and researchers interested in the subject of the Holocaust and genocide. The book embodies a very rich review of important research and scholarship on the Holocaust, and contributes enormously to the debates on the discourse of ethical practices and dispositions that emerged in the Holocausts aftermath * Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, International Journal on World Peace * Everything John K. Roth writes is thoughtful, measured, and insightful, and so is this deeply disturbing yet hopeful book. Part intellectual autobiography, part philosophical treatise, and part call to action in dark times, The Failures of Ethics deserves and will reward a wide readership. * Peter Hayes, Theodore Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust Studies, Northwestern University * John K. Roth has joined the issue of historical scholarship with a consideration of ethical discourse and of the inability of that discourse to remain the same in the presence of such anti-human events. His focus on racism and tribalism is pivotal. Roth is boldly willing to challenge himself and others most especially as he confronts the failures of ethics - and overcoming those failures. His style invites engagement -- insists on engagement and dialogue and unlike many philosophers -- dare I say most -- his insights are both profound and accessible. * Michael Berenbaum * The publication of John K. Roth's The Failures of Ethics is an occasion for rejoicing--not in the failures of ethics but in Roth's profound realization that those failures matter. Eloquent, insightful, and deeply personal, Roth's reflection resonates with anyone whose soul hungers for meaning. For those who would embrace the ethical in an age haunted by nihilism and despair, reading this book is a matter of ethical responsibility. * David Patterson, Hillel Feinberg Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas * The Failures of Ethics by John K. Roth, one of America's preeminent scholars and educators, reflects more than 40 years of scholarship, thinking, and teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries. Thoughtful, provocative, and elegantly written, it is a book educators and students alike should read, ponder, discuss, and learn from, but only if they are willing to confront questions with no easy answers. * Dr. Carol Rittner, R.S.M., Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies and Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Professor of Holocaust Studies, The Richard Stockton University of New Jersey * The Failures of Ethics is a testimonial to Roth's extensive research and analysis about a topic with significant implications for humanity's survival. This masterful book/textbook offers a critical exploration of the vulnerability of ethics and why genocide remains a persistent possibility for vulnerable groups and cultures. * New York Journal of Books * John Roth's The Failures of Ethics is anything but a resigned, world-weary confession of helplessness before the iniquities of the Holocaust and other terrible wrongs. To the contrary, this latest book by one of America's senior and widely respected Holocaust scholars is a resolutely ethical reflection on his four decades of scholarship and teaching in the field, looking back over his professional and pedagogical confrontations with some of the most vexing questions of our times. * Journal of Central European History *