Profiles in Humanity by Warren I. Cohen

In the ‘60’s, it seemed possible to change the world. Women’s rights, racial equality, environmental awareness, opposition to an unjust war, those were all issues that were opening people’s minds and changing behavior. It was a heady feeling that even infected someone like me, who was too young to actually do anything besides draw peace signs with my crayons. Though I do recall saving pudding labels to send in for the establishment of a bald eagle sanctuary in Alaska. It was that feeling of possibility that made me pick up this book, one that shows people who really did make a difference in the world, doing something besides eating lots of chocolate pudding.
Each chapter details the life of a person who sparked change in the Twentieth Century. They range from the extremely famous such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, to less known Margaret Sanger and Doria Shafik. There’s also some surprising choices, like Pope John XXIII. Each profile highlights their individuality and often contains information that I didn’t know, even on someone such as Nelson Mandela, whom I’ve read a lot about. The chapters are so clearly written that the reader never confuses one person with another, which could easily happen with this type of book. The author sometimes inserts personal anecdotes and feelings about the person, which adds an extra dimension.
The chapter on Holocaust rescuers is one of the most powerful and one I wished had been longer. Inspired by the ‘Garden of the Righteous’ at Yad Vashem, it mentions not only Schindler and Wallenberg, but many others in Europe and Asia who risked everything to save Jews. Though I despaired when I read about how resistant the U.S. government was to fleeing Jewish emigrants, not even meeting the visa quota allowed in their embassy in Lithuania. There’s something to be proud of.
In looking for a common thread among the heroes in this book, I realized that all of the people were above average intelligence and education. Not always formal education, but all of them read widely throughout their lives, prime examples of the adage “knowledge is power”. Many also had numerous extramarital affairs and those that didn’t, still had unstable family lives, often separated from their loved ones by prison sentences and blocked visas. Immediate families always pay the price when one is saving the world.
The persistence that many of these people displayed is astonishing, especially considering the imprisonments, beatings, death threats, food shortages and other deprivations they suffered. It’s relatable to go through that for something personal, but to do so for something more vague like the rights of a population is amazing. And often they didn’t live to see the results. Or, in the case of Suu Kyi of Burma, are still struggling. It’s humbling, knowing that by our moral yardstick that most of us would not have anything like that sort of resoluteness. That pudding labels is about our speed. But it’s also inspiring, to know that some humans have the courage to do something big, something to really change the world.

Rowman and Littlefield 2009 262 pp. ISBN 978-0-7425-6701-6

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