The Prevalence of Deceit

In 1954 Adlai Stevenson, widely regarded as an honest (if not always successful) politician, urged his supporters to "cling everlastingly to the truth." Seven years later he lied to the United Nations about the Bay of Pigs. We have come to expect lies from politicians, F. G. Bailey says, but we are less willing to admit deceit and self-deception as a feature of everyone's life, a necessary part of our social and political systems.

In this engaging book, Bailey looks at the deeds and words of politicians in the United States, in India, and elsewhere; and at the behavior of ordinary people, mostly in village India. He demonstrates that there is a vast confusion about "truth," that in politics claims to have a monopoly on truth can rarely be sustained, and that people often find themselves treating what they believe to be false as if it were true, because it pays to do so.

Through a vivid survey of exemplary occasions of deceit—from the collusive lying of participants in marriage rituals to the institutionalized fraud designed to subdue the weak—Bailey illuminates our rich rhetoric for practical fudging, as we slide between deception, error, and fantasy. His thought-provoking conclusion brilliantly explores the possibility of testing truth in a world of contested values.