Honor in the Modern World

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Contributions by Anthony Cunningham, Dan Demetriou, Amitai Etzioni professor, George Washington University; founder of the Society for the Adv, Steven Forde University of North Texas, Shannon E. French, Mark Griffith, Vanessa Hettinger, Laurie M. Johnson, Sharon Krause Brown University, Richard Ned Lebow, Andrea Mansker, Ryan Rhodes, Paul Robinson, Steven Skultety, Joe Thomas, Joe Vandello, Ajume H. Wingo Edited by Laurie M. Johnson, Dan Demetriou

Publication date:

03 August 2016

Length of book:

326 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

238x158mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498502610

After a century-long hiatus, honor is back. Academics, pundits, and everyday citizens alike are rediscovering the importance of this ancient and powerful human motive. This volume brings together some of the foremost researchers of honor to debate honor’s meaning and its compatibility with liberalism, democracy, and modernity. Contributors—representing philosophy, sociology, political science, history, psychology, leadership studies, and military science—examine honor past to present, from masculine and feminine perspectives, and in North American, European, and African contexts. Topics include the role of honor in the modern military, the effects of honor on our notions of the dignity and “purity” of women, honor as a quality of good statesmen and citizens, honor’s role in international relations and community norms, and how honor’s egalitarian and elitist aspects intersect with democratic and liberal regimes.

Fighting Together: Civil Discourse and Agonistic Honor
Liberalism and Honor through the Lens of Darwin
Liberal Honor
A Neo-Aristotelian Theory of Political Honor
Putting One’s Best Face Forward: Why Liberalism Needs Honor
Communitarianism and Honor
Good Citizens: Gratitude and Honor
Winston Churchill and Honor: The Complexity of Honor and Statesmanship
Life in Death: Democracy and Civic Honor
The Female Point of Honor in Post-Revolutionary France
A Woman’s Honor: Purity Norms and Male Violence
Restoring Order: The Ancient Greeks on Taming Honor and Appetite
The Honour of the Crown’: The State and Its Soldiers
Honor in Military Culture: A Standard of Integrity and Framework for Moral Restraint

This is a superb anthology that questions the value and even the existence of honor in the contemporary world. This timely book insofar as the essays contained therein analyze practices that differ from previous research that focused almost exclusively on a Mediterranean perspective. This is an impressive set of works that casts new light on an ancient concept.