Goodness Doesn't Just Happen: A "This I Believe" Essay

Written by Rebecca West

Narrated by Rebecca West

Critic, journalist, novelist, and feminist Rebecca West describes her discovery that human nature does not naturally support liberty in "Goodness Doesn’t Just Happen", her contribution to NPR’s This I Believe series.

This I Believe is a National Public Radio program that features Americans, from the famous to the unknown, completing the thought that begins with the series title. The pieces that make up the program compel listeners to re-think not only what and how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Featuring a star-studded list of contributors that includes John McCain, Isabel Allende, and Colin Powell, as well as pieces from the original 1950's series including Helen Keller and Jackie Robinson, the This I Believe collection also contains essays by a Brooklyn lawyer, a woman who sells yellow pages advertising in Fort Worth, TX and a man who serves on the state of Rhode Island's parole board. The result is a stirring, funny and always provocative trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of Americans whose beliefs, and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them, reveal the American spirit at its best.

This short audio essay is an excerpt from the audiobook edition of NPR's This I Believe anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Oct 3, 2006
• ISBN: 9781427204035

Rebecca West

Critic, journalist, novelist and feminist Rebecca West (1892-1983) is known for her studies of the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremburg, for which President Harry Truman called her "the world's best reporter." In 1959, West was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of an honorary knighthood.