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Courage: Portraits of Bravery in the Service of Great Causes

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U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown shares with his audience the life of eight men and women whose courage he deeply admires. These eight people are Edith Cavell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Raoul Wallenberg, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Cicely Saunders, and Aung San Suu Kyi. The emphasis on courage as a selection criterion is built on Winston Churchill's observation that courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others (p. 124).

Cavell, Bonhoeffer, Wallenberg, King, Jr., Kennedy, Mandela, Saunders, and Suu Kyi are what Frank Farley calls "sustained altruists" who devote long periods, sometimes their entire lives, to principled causes (p. 240). The other two types of courageous people that Farley identifies are "career heroes," say, emergency workers, police, and military, and "situational heroes," who courageously rise to the occasion as it demands, say, the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11. These three categories of courageous people are not mutually exclusive (pp. 239-40).

To his credit, Brown successfully shares his genuine admiration for these eight men and women with his readers. Brown points out that their courage exudes not only physical bravery, but also, and perhaps more importantly, strength of character and strength of beliefs (pp. 1, 35, 38, 64, 67, 72, 78, 85, 96, 106, 129, 139-40, 167, 210-11, 227). These eight men and women did not belong to a "predestined elite" that inevitably had to rise to greatness (pp. 8, 37, 66-70, 80, 92, 118, 123, 152, 183, 241-42, 244). Like the readers of "Courage," they had choices and options throughout their lives. These eight men and women chose action over inaction (pp. 11, 27, 41, 49, 59-61, 70, 92, 106, 126, 152, 186-89, 210).

Cavell, Bonhoeffer, Wallenberg, King, Jr., Kennedy, Mandela, Saunders, and Suu Kyi succeeded in leveraging their strong beliefs and willpower to keep their fears out of the way of their principled causes (pp. 17-18, 23, 32, 44, 53, 83-84, 95, 98, 125, 155, 173, 176, 227, 241, 244). Social disapproval, physical pain, and danger, including the risk of death, ultimately were no match for their personal belief and moral purpose (pp. 20, 28, 36, 40, 47, 55, 66, 79, 137, 155, 161-62, 169-71, 196, 214, 219-25, 228, 236). Like a lighthouse, these eight men and women were driven to bring light where darkness was ruling; this in the name of higher ideals (pp. 1, 34-35, 63, 76, 88, 97, 112-13, 122, 137, 157-58, 189-90, 205, 211, 230, 243).

Although Brown celebrates the courage of these eight men and women he admires, he rightly does not downplay the courage of anonymous people who make a difference in their respective societies. Courage is not a luxury, but a must in the struggle against prejudice, racism, violence, discrimination, and injustice, and in the creation of a good society (p. 242).

To summarize, Brown invites his audience to better know eight courageous men and women who chose to act when others stood by, and made sacrifices that made our world a better place to live in.

As a side note, any proceeds of "Courage" go to a charity whose goal is to support research into the causes and consequences of prematurity (pp. xiv, 244-45).