Scapegoat

In this short study, Campbell (former books editor, Literary Review) explores the human habit of blaming others. When a negative event takes place, many people experience a powerful urge to cast blame, to find a person or group to hold responsible. Campbell offers example after example of scapegoating throughout history, many of which would seem laughably absurd were they not, disturbingly, true. From literal whipping boys who received punishment for the misdeeds of child kings, to the so-called witches hunted in the 16th and 17th centuries, to the Jews blamed for the Black Death in Europe, societies have created and punished (often by execution) an astonishing array of scapegoats. Campbell spends a helpful chapter discussing the psychology of scapegoating, helping readers understand the innate human urge to blame others so as to be able to live with oneself. His humor and engaging stories draw attention to the phenomenon of blame in the hope that readers will realize humanity's collective foolishness and perhaps become more circumspect about irrationally placing blame.