Non­fic­tion

The Oppo­site of Hate: A Field Guide to Repair­ing Our Humanity

  • From the Publisher
March 29, 2018

As a pro­gres­sive com­men­ta­tor on Fox News and now CNN, Sal­ly Kohn has made a career out of bridg­ing polit­i­cal dif­fer­ences, learn­ing how to talk civil­ly to peo­ple whose views she dis­agrees with pas­sion­ate­ly. She even gave a TED Talk about what she termed emo­tion­al cor­rect­ness. But these days, even Kohn has found her­self want­i­ng to breathe fire at her ene­mies. She decid­ed to look into the ugli­ness erupt­ing all around us. In The Oppo­site of Hate, Kohn talks to lead­ing sci­en­tists and researchers, inves­ti­gat­ing the evo­lu­tion­ary and cul­tur­al roots of hate and how sim­ple inci­vil­i­ty can be a gate­way to much worse. She trav­els to Rwan­da, the Mid­dle East, and across the Unit­ed States, intro­duc­ing us to ter­ror­ists, white suprema­cists, and even some of her own Twit­ter trolls, draw­ing sur­pris­ing lessons from these dra­mat­ic examples,”including inspir­ing sto­ries of those who left hate behind. As Kohn bold­ly con­fronts her own shame­ful moments, whether it’s the girl she bul­lied as a child or her own deep par­ti­san resent­ment, she points the way toward change.

Discussion Questions