Book Review: The Sleep of Behemoth: Disputing Peace and Violence in Medieval Europe, 1000–1200, by Jehangir Yezdi Malegam

• Date: 01 December 2015
• DOI: 10.1177/0090591715606894
• Author: Justine Firnhaber-Baker
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
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4. Given his analysis of Americans’ bad character, Lebron proposes three
programs to promote moral reform. One would provide ambitious educa-
tional programs to present black history adequately and enable young
people to correct demeaning beliefs about African Americans and stereo-
typical dispositions towards them. A second would require measures to
prevent the media from promoting demeaning views of African
Americans, the development of new educational vehicles, and (most con-
troversially) censorship of presentations that encourage demeaning views
of African Americans. A third would require comprehensive oversight by
ordinary citizens of institutions such as police, development agencies,
and agencies that distribute benefits.
Lebron is right to stress the importance to reform of changing American
hearts and minds, not merely redistribution. It is difficult, however, to imag-
ine America implementing such programs so long as Americans harbor the
beliefs and dispositions the programs are meant to correct. This looks like a
Catch 22: so long as such programs are needed, the political will to create
them will be lacking.
How can we effectively promote the profound moral progress that Lebron
recognizes America needs? That is indeed a problem for non-ideal theory,
which The Color of Our Shame obliges us to confront.
Notes
1. Space does not permit discussion of Lebron’s views about the moral character of
institutions.
2. See my Confronting Injustice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), chap. 7.
3. Note the context, however. Federal policy changed during the Cold War, when
America was competing with the Soviet Union for markets, resources, and alli-
ances with new nations of color. Not especially interested in civil rights, the
Kennedy administration tried but failed to stop civil rights campaigns that gener-
ated images sent round the world of official white brutality against peacefully
demonstrating African Americans; so it adopted a public position of support to
help America look better overseas.
The Sleep of Behemoth: Disputing Peace and Violence in Medieval Europe, 1000–1200,
by Jehangir Yezdi Malegam. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013.
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