Loyalty: An Essay on the Morality of Relationships

'George Fletcher writes with a rare combination of legal knowledge, theoretical sophistication, and common sense. His remarkable feel for the place of loyalty in everyday life makes this a book that should figure importantly in contemporary moral, political, and constitutional debates.'Michael Walzer, Princeton University
'George Fletcher has made a notable contribution to the continuing debate about the relationship of the impersonal requirements of justice to the particular demands of those ties and loyalties which bond us to those to whom we are closest. His is a book rich in illuminating examples and in rewarding insights.' Alasdair Macintyre, University of Notre Dame
'In LOYALTY, George Fletcher brings to life a subject that liberal, legal and political theory has barely recognized. The theme of loyalty, he convincingly demonstrates, is a hidden thread running through a wide range of seemingly unrelated issues.'Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School
`Loyalties are not only a value to us, they define us. This thesis is developed and defended with great force by Professor Fletcher, and applied with ingenuity.' Sidney Morgenbesser, Columbia University
`This challenging and densely packed extended essay ... thoroughly dissects the concept of loyalty'Timothy Hunter, Cleveland Plain Dealer 14/2/93
`One suspects LOYALTY will win Fletcher an enduring audience which is just the sort he might want.Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer 14/2/93
`presents clearly and vigorously an important range of moral problems ... he commands plenty of good, thought-provoking examples of those commitments and the clashes they give rise to, and he handles them effectively ... he says much that is valuable about the idea of actions as communications rather than mere causes of results.'Mary Midgley, Times Literary Supplement
'George Fletcher ... offers a lively account of the loyalties which he thinks resist impartialist analysis. His book is insightful, and replete with challenging case studies ... his essay is undoubtedly an overall success.'Times Higher Education Supplement
'One fascinating aspect about Fletcher's Loyalty is that it raises a number of questions that lawyers and philosophers can continue debating at length ... The issue of oaths in general, and loyalty oaths in particular, is just one of a great variety of topics raised by George Fletcher ... The arguments in this essay are well worth considering in detail. Fletcher's final plea for reasoned discourse "across time, across space, and across culture" transcending our roots in loyal relationships is an invitation to do exactly that.'B. Sharon Byrd, University of Augsburg, Law and Philosophy 13:1994