NPR

'A War For Kindness' Favors The Practical Over Polemical

If you want a clarion call to action, Jamil Zaki's new book might not be it. But if you want a wide-ranging practical guide to making the world better, then you're in luck.
<em>The War For Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World</em>, by Jamil Zaki

A war for kindness would be a non-violent war for hearts and minds. And since empathy is really a union of heart and mind, fellow feeling in the service of understanding, internal struggle and social complication are inevitable. Empathy can't happen without them.

I had high hopes for Jamil Zaki's The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. But after reading, I was left ambivalent.

Let me say at the outset that there's a lot to recommend in Zaki's approach. He demonstrates empathy to be something one can develop. He writes about

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