Book Review: ‘Call It Evil,’ by Susan Neiman

Philosopher Susan Neiman’s 2026 book, Call It Evil, provides a moral and philosophical framework for understanding the rise of Donald Trump and the erosion of Western democratic values. Neiman argues that contemporary society has wrongly abandoned universal moral principles in favor of a cynical worldview where only power and self-interest are considered realistic. By redefining evil as the unbearable gap between how the world is and how it ought to be, she moves beyond mere political tactics to diagnose a systemic collapse of trust. The text explores how this cynicism has been fostered by intellectual history and is currently exemplified by both Trump’s political style and the international response to the war in Gaza. Neiman insists that reclaiming moral language is essential for a left-wing politics that seeks to uphold justice over raw dominance. Ultimately, the book serves as a call to action for readers to stop treating cruelty as common sense and to recognize the profound danger in dismissing moral principles as naive.

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