What causes genocide? Why do some stand by, doing nothing, while others risk their lives to help the persecuted? In her new book, Ethics in an Age of Terror and Genocide, political scientist Kristen Renwick Monroe sought answers to these questions through interviews with bystanders, Nazi supporters, and rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. What she found provides strong evidence that self-image and identity, rather than logical reasoning, play a greater role in shaping our moral being and the manner in which we treat others.

The author of more than 50 articles and 15 single-authored books or edited volumes, Monroe’s work on altruism and moral choice has earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination, a National Book Award nomination, two American Political Science Association Best Book Awards for both The Heart of Altruism (1996) and The Hand of Compassion (2004), and the 2010 Paul Silverman Award for Outstanding Scientific Work on Ethics.

Click here for her recently published op-ed on ethical choices during desperate times, as published in the Jewish Chronicle.