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"Philosophies of Gratitude is a study of gratitude as a philosophical concept. It explores what past philosophers from Aristotle to Kant have said about gratitude, and examines what role the idea of gratitude has played in their philosophies. It also looks at the three primary ways we think about gratitude - as an emotion we feel in response to a gift or benefit, as an act we perform to express our thankfulness, and as a virtuous disposition in which we are and feel ready to be grateful to the world we inhabit. Like love and trust, gratitude is a way we react to other people in our lives, sometimes for who they are (lovable or trustworthy) and sometimes for what they do (act benevolently towards us). It is a way we feel and act towards others. It is, in other words, a primary way we situate ourselves in relationships. Philosophies of Gratitude examines the key historical moments when gratitude was an important philosophical concept - in classical antiquity, in the early modern era, and in the Enlightenment - in order to discover what gratitude meant for those who produced our fundamental Western notions of ethics. It then examines the forms gratitude assumes - as a feeling, an act, a disposition - in order to discern what role our emotions play in our ethical responses to the world. Finally, it examines what we can say about ingratitude as a response that usually strikes us as base, in other words, as a moment when a human being fails to act morally, but also as a response that sometimes indicates a deeper kind of ethical stand against injustice"--

Forgiveness -- Forgiveness: Jesus and Paul -- The banality of forgiveness -- Forgiving retribution -- Resentment -- Resentment: the wound of Philoctetes -- The British moralist tradition: conscience -- The continental cultural tradition: collective -- Apology -- Apology: the unforgiven lives of others -- Private apologies -- Public apologies -- The arts of empathy

"Public apologies have become increasingly common scenes and representative moments in what appears to be a global process of forgiveness. The apology-forgiveness dynamic is familiar to all of us, but what do these rituals of atonement mean when they are applied to political and historical events? In his timely, topical, and incisive book A Guilted Age, Ashraf Rushdy argues that the proliferation of apologies by politicians, nations, and churches for past events--such as American slavery or the Holocaust--can be understood as a historical phenomenon. In our post-World War II world, Rushdy claims that we live in a 'guilted age.' A Guilted Age identifies the two major forms of apologies--political and historical--and Rushdy defines the dynamics and strategies of each, showing how the evolution of one led to the other. In doing so, he reveals what apology and forgiveness do to the past events they respectively apologize for and forgive--and what happens when they fail."--Publisher's Web site

"Public apologies have become increasingly common scenes and representative moments in what appears to be a global process of forgiveness. The apology-forgiveness dynamic is familiar to all of us, but what do these rituals of atonement mean when they are applied to political and historical events? In his timely, topical, and incisive book A Guilted Age, Ashraf Rushdy argues that the proliferation of apologies by politicians, nations, and churches for past events--such as American slavery or the Holocaust--can be understood as a historical phenomenon. In our post-World War II world, Rushdy claims that we live in a 'guilted age.' A Guilted Age identifies the two major forms of apologies--political and historical--and Rushdy defines the dynamics and strategies of each, showing how the evolution of one led to the other. In doing so, he reveals what apology and forgiveness do to the past events they respectively apologize for and forgive--and what happens when they fail."--Publisher's Web site.

The End of American Lynching questions how we think about the dynamics of lynching, what lynchings mean to the society in which they occur, how lynching is defined, and the circumstances that lead to lynching. Ashraf H. A. Rushday looks at three lynchings over the course of the twentieth century-one in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1911, one in Marion, Indiana in 1930, and one in Jasper, Texas in 1998-to see how Americans developed two distinct ways of thinking and talking about this act before and after the 1930s

The End of American Lynching questions how we think about the dynamics of lynching, what lynchings mean to the society in which they occur, how lynching is defined, and the circumstances that lead to lynching. Ashraf H.A. Rushday looks at three lynchings over the course of the twentieth century-one in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1911, one in Marion, Indiana in 1930, and one in Jasper, Texas in 1998-to see how Americans developed two distinct ways of thinking and talking about this act before and after the 1930s