The Moral Background

Co-Winner of the 2015 Outstanding Published Book Award, Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the 2015 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book, Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association Abend combines history, philosophy, and social science to suggest a comprehensive base for understanding moral behavior. While the book's focus is on business ethics, the insights presented have many applications. --Choice [A] stimulating book, essential to understand the place of the business world ... in the moral landscape of America today, but also ... to grasp the contemporary trends in corporate social responsibility. --Michel Anteby, Sociologie du Travail This is an enormously ambitious book packed with history, ethics, and philosophy of science as well as sociology. It is more historical than much history of philosophy and takes business ethics more seriously than most ethicists do. It is an important contribution to creating a field in which researchers in a variety of traditions mutually inform each other about morality. --Dale Jamieson, European Journal of Sociology The Moral Background discerns and details moral patterns in the echo chamber where business protagonists talk, mostly to each other, about ethical motives, obligations, and opportunities. Abend has done a yeoman's job in excavating, analyzing, and systematizing the discursive surrounds of business ethics, pushing us all to think about who can and cannot be seen in the moral background. --Robin Wagner-Pacifici, European Journal of Sociology Especially important among the virtues of Abend's research is his ability to work through a huge body of historical material ... and to find meaning in these disparate sources that point back to the 'moral backgrounds' from which they emanate. This is a truly gigantic task of intellectual integration, and Abend's book sets a high bar for future studies of the cultural meaning of intellectual, practical, and normative social realities. --Daniel Little, Understanding Society Blog The Moral Background is an intriguing and useful book. Abend develops and promotes an analytical concept that contemporary sociology desperately needs. I think it will be influential as cultural sociology continues to seek the right balance between culture as a repertoire of skills and styles and culture as something deeper--something that shapes the thoughts we think and provides the menu for the kinds of people we can aspire to be. --Stephen Vaisey, European Journal of Sociology The Moral Background is an ambitious, deeply researched, and engaging book... Abend's account is both thorough and broad, and the erudition he displays is astounding... [A] masterful book. --Simone Polillo, Social Forces