About this item
Highlights
- Public life is dominated from time to time by media storms around integrity.
- About the Author: Martin Albrow has held numerous professorships and fellowships in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and China.
- 224 Pages
- Social Science, Sociology
Description
Book Synopsis
Public life is dominated from time to time by media storms around integrity. The behaviour of elected political leaders has led many to decry the deterioration in standards and the lack of integrity in public life. But what is integrity, and where does our concern with integrity in public life come from?
In this book, Martin Albrow argues that integrity has been an essential component of the rise of the West and a key feature that distinguishes the West from other civilizations. He traces the idea of integrity back to its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, where integrity acquired its special meaning: the unique feature of any object with integrity was that it combined its wholeness or completeness with the embodiment of standards that came from outside it. Integrity was unity through values. He then follows the story of integrity through early Christianity and the Renaissance to the present day. Today, we find ourselves in the paradoxical situation where the lack of integrity in public life is widely condemned while, at the same time, politicians can remain popular without even pretending to act with integrity: this is the new politics of the integrity vacuum.
The idea of integrity may be a distinctively western one but, like many other aspects of western culture, it has now become a property of worldwide society. Albrow concludes by arguing that integrity could add more value today by being combined with non-western wisdom as we strive to create an order where honesty, trust and reliability in our relationships with others are paramount.
This highly original account of an idea that lies at the heart of western culture will be of interest to anyone concerned about the state and future of our public life.
Review Quotes
"In a groundbreaking, monumental survey of a massive subject, Martin Albrow explores integrity from the Roman period to the present day, considering among other things the fall of Enron, Wirecard and the Post Office Horizon scandal. He makes a convincing case that integrity is behind all we do or should be."
John Bowers KC, Principal, Brasenose College, Oxford
"An overlooked subject explored with perfect timeliness. The author covers the sweep of western history to show how evolving notions of integrity have been central to those countries' governments and their sense of themselves."
Bronwen Maddox
"a generally well-done, generally in-depth genealogy of a concept"
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
About the Author
Martin Albrow has held numerous professorships and fellowships in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and China. Among his many books is The Global Age.