ABSTRACT
Obedience to Authority is likely to remain significant as a summary and discussion of issues regarding conformity* and obedience. Identifying basic human tendencies not ordinarily treated elsewhere, the book provides a helpful reference in the study of psychology and political history; it is especially useful for Holocaust* scholars. A discussion of Stanley Milgram's obedience studies in 1974's Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View is found in almost all introductory psychology texts; the work is covered in depth by every social psychology textbook. Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority summarized studies on more than a thousand participants in a series of psychology experiments. Milgram and other commentators believed that the results of his studies provided scientific proof for the existence of a basic tendency in human nature: to obey established authorities, even when the actions demanded conflict with personal conscience. Acknowledging this tendency can help us understand how no psychotic, ordinary people facilitated the monstrous dreams of Germany's leaders.
