Does Betrayal Still Matter?

Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, reviews On Betrayal (Harvard University Press, 2017) by Avishai Margalit, former Professor in the School of Historical Studies. Of the book, Walzer writes, "Betrayal is the breaking of thick relations, but we can’t understand its seriousness unless we understand what thickness—fraternity and solidarity—means in human life. . . . Margalit poses a question that we are meant to keep in mind throughout our reading of his book: Is betrayal losing its hold? Have we become casual or tolerant or indifferent when we think about adultery, apostasy, and treason? Margalit addresses this question at many points without ever offering a definitive answer. But the book as a whole is an answer: betrayal still matters, still moves us in critical ways, whenever relations are thick."

Read more at the New York Review of Books.