Review by Choice Review
In this short, densely written, six-chapter volume, Vernon (Univ. of Western Ontario, Canada) engages the philosophical questions raised by the international attention that the issue of historical redress has increasingly received in the last two decades. His focus revolves around the issue of responsibility, which is discussed with the help of a number of recent and high-profile cases. Vernon notes a central paradox of recent efforts to right old wrongs. Although responsibility is not inherited, time and time again one generation has been asked to make good the wrongs done by its predecessors. He investigates what principles justify inherited responsibility, the political and ethical questions derived from such expectations, and whether it matters if the wrong is large or small, or redress is one kind or another. The first part of the book discusses arguments related to memory, justice, apology, and citizenship across several countries and cases. Its second part makes the case for a forward-looking approach centered on the right of future generations to live a just life. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. L. Stan St. Francis Xavier University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
