Moral Man and Immoral Society

A Study in Ethics and Politics

Moral Man and Immoral Society, first published in 1932, is Reinhold Niebuhr’s important study in ethics and politics. Forthright and realistic, it discussed the inevitability of social conflict, the brutal behaviour of human collectives of every sort, the inability of rationalists and social scientists to even imagine the realities of collective power, and, ultimately, how individual morality can overcome social immorality.

“Every thinking Christian must squarely face the major thesis of this book, or confess the impotence of his faith for a day when the dawn is lowering red.”—The Christian Century

“No one can read it without gaining great value.”—Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science