“Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times” by Eyal Press

Eyal Press's book Beautiful Souls was reviewed in the Washington Post.

In his first book, “Absolute Convictions,” Eyal Press showed how anti-abortion crusaders in Buffalo achieved intense solidarity in pursuit of their goals, including the murder of an abortion provider and intimidation of others, such as the author’s father. In Beautiful Souls, Press examines another side of strong group conviction: the ability to break ranks with others who display absolute unanimity. He wants to know “why, even in situations of seemingly total conformity, there are always some people who refuse to go along?”

“Beautiful Souls” examines four cases: a Swiss police officer who let Jews fleeing Nazism cross into Switzerland in violation of the country’s policy; a Serbian who saved the lives of several Croatian townsmen about to be tortured or executed during the Serbo-Croation wars of the 1990s; an Israeli soldier from an elite battalion who joined with others in refusing to serve in the occupied territories; a financial adviser who realized that her company was defrauding investors and blew the whistle. All four took difficult paths of resistance against the conformity around them, and all four were punished for it in different ways. None of them regretted the decision.