The Moral of the Story, Fifth Edition offers a remarkably effective approach that helps students understand and evaluate moral issues. Through storytelling and story analysis, using examples from fiction and film, Rosenstand clearly shows how ethical theories are applied to real life. The fifth edition encapsulates and reflects the present social and political climate. As such, coverage of topics like courage, terrorism, and just war have been enhanced and updated throughout. .
It's a very good book. It taps a wide variety of things movies, book excerpts, new items etc. The conceptual clarity is amazing. Also introduces to new philosophers. Excellent book.
For a textbook, it's not a bad read. I remember most the author's recounting the story of Hypatia and the excerpt from Ursula LeGuin's "Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." It does suffer a little from political correctness, as I recall.
I had more respect for the author after reading about the connection between ethics and storytelling in depth in MacIntyre's After Virtue.
If ever you wanted to play devil's advocate for a particularly pressing moral issue, this is the book to help you get started. I enjoyed this book during one of my early philosophy classes, and it laid out both sides of the argument very well. A must for anyone interested in philosophical issues and how they pertain to ethics/morality.