Mercy: Humanity in Warfare

During war, the most degrading moral environment is created, where individualism is lost and humanity is reduced to a faceless, ruthless enemy. However, as Cathal Nolan demonstrates in his book, even in the darkest of times, acts of mercy and shared dignity can emerge. These acts challenge assumptions about humanity and require our attention for their moral uplift and because they transcend our understanding. Mercy is not the exclusive domain of saints but of ordinary men and women who risk everything to perform them. It offers a haunting and compassionate counterpoint to the usual inhumane logic of war.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 01 December 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

War presents the most degraded moral environment humanity creates, an arena where individuality is subsumed in collective violence and humanity is obscured as a faceless, merciless enemy pitted against its reflection in an elemental struggle for survival. A barbaric logic has guided the conduct of war throughout history, yet as Cathal Nolan reveals in this gripping, poignant, and powerful book, even as war can obliterate hope and decency at the grand level, it simultaneously produces conditions that permit astonishing exceptions of mercy and shared dignity. Pulling the trigger is usually both the expedient thing and required by war's grim and remorseless calculus. Yet somehow, the trigger is not always pulled. A different choice is made. Restraint triumphs. Humanity is rediscovered and honored in a flash of recognition.

This book gathers and explores acts of singular mercy, giving them form and substance—across wars, causes, and opposing uniforms. These acts demand our attention not only for the moral uplift they supply but because they challenge assumptions about humanity itself. Rising above ordinary courage, they may ultimately transcend our understanding, entering the realm of the ineffable. Nevertheless, as Nolan shows, acts of mercy in war are not the provenance of saints but of ordinary men and women who perform them at great personal risk. As much or more than the normal war hero stories, we must recognize the extraordinary courage of the merciful in war.

Mercy is an exceptional book about exceptions, challenging myths and heroic fabrications, refuting claims to exclusive moral virtue. It reminds us that decency in warfare is also universal, offering a haunting and compellingly humane counternarrative to war's usual inhumane logic.

Weight: 526g
Dimension: 147 x 243 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190077280