Beautiful Souls

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On the Swiss border with Austria in 1938, a police captain defies a law preventing Jewish refugees from entering his country. A Serb in war-torn Vukovar later risks his career to save Croats, while during the Second Intifada, a member of Israel's elite military unit refuses to serve in occupied territories. Fifty years after Hannah Arendt's analysis of conformity in the Eichmann trial, Beautiful Souls delves into the motivations behind ordinary individuals who resist authority and societal norms. Through compelling narratives of unlikely resisters confronted with moral dilemmas, Eyal Press illustrates that significant acts of dissent often come from those who passionately uphold their convictions rather than from radicals aiming to dismantle the system. The book incorporates insights from moral psychology and neuroscience, culminating in the account of a whistleblower in the financial industry who loses her job for rejecting a misleadingly advertised toxic product. Amid economic turmoil and political strife, this deeply reported narrative journalism explores the choices we face when our principles clash with our loyalties and obligations.