Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1. Ideal and real: 1. Hard facts ; 2. Ideas and ideology ; 3. Facing gallows -- Part 2. Enlightenment values: 4. Myths or monsters ; 5. Heaven and Earth ; 6. Happiness ; 7. Reason ; 8. Reverence ; 9. Hope -- Part 3. Good and Evil: 10. The Odyssey: An excursion ; 11. What about evil? ; 12. Enlightenment heroes ; 13. Moral clarity.

For years, moral language has been the province of the Right, as the Left has consoled itself with rudderless pragmatism. In this profound and powerful book, Susan Neiman reclaims the vocabulary of morality--good and evil, heroism and nobility--as a lingua franca for the twenty-first century. In constructing a framework for taking responsible action on today's urgent questions, Neiman reaches back to the eighteenth century, retrieving a series of values--happiness, reason, reverence, and hope--held high by Enlightenment thinkers. In this thoroughly updated edition, Neiman reflects on how the moral language of the 2008 presidential campaign has opened up new political and cultural possibilities in America and beyond. -- Provided by publisher