The Invention of Good and Evil is a very in-depth look at humanity’s relationship with morality.

I was so excited for this book. I love me some good non-fiction and the study of morality fascinates me. What makes some of us “good” and some of us “bad”? How do we collectively decide what “good” and “bad” even mean? This book had all the hallmarks of something I’d be super into.
The read started off well, the first couple of chapters I was engaged and into it, but then it started falling short for me. To be fair, there is a lot packed into one book. To explain all the theories and developments that have happened in our entire human history is no small task. I was left with the feeling that it was perhaps too ambitious for one text. It is definitely a dense read. Hanno presents various arguments that have been made over time and then disproves them with another competing argument. I had the sense of whiplash as I read. I guess I wanted Hanno to present a theory and then present the evidence to support it, but what I got was a more objective observation of trends over time. And while that isn’t a bad thing in itself, it just didn’t work for me in this book.

Simon and Schuster Canada sent me this review copy of The Invention of Good and Evil by Hanno Sauer near the beginning of the summer and I have been working my way slowly through it since. This is not to say I have been trudging my way through, more that there is a whole lot going on here to take in and ruminate on.

The book jacket compares this book to Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and I feel it is a very accurate comparison in terms of the immense scope of the material that is here.

The authour has taken on an extremely ambitious and daunting task; to tackle the orgins and evolution of the human experience of good and evil, the how and why of human morality, starting right at the beginning with our earliest ancestors in East Africa, right up to present day. He then ends with a summary of the moral crisis we face as a society today.

This isn’t light summer reading by any means, but it is fascinating, and the authour has done a beautiful job of taking this immense subject matter and making it accessible for the general population.

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