atrocitology humanity's 100 deadliest achievements

If you are a tyrant who has killed millions (you know who you are out there in Goodreadsland), you have a 49% chance of dying peacefully whilst still in power and an 11% chance of retiring from office and dying peacefully in retirement. This last point will not please libertarians.Ĥ. War kills more civilians than soldiers and more people than oppressive governments do. The world is very disorganised - soldiers and nations change sides in the middle of wars, it's often hard to tell where one nation stops and another starts, and same goes with actual wars.ģ. Here are some interesting conclusions from Mr White, who has thought about men, women and children dying in huge numbers more than is surely healthy for anyone -Ģ. The best parts of this odd book are the essays thrown into the mix. 'Marjorie, Marjorie - before we go any further I think we should consult our well-thumbed copy of Atrocitology, don't you?'

'Derek, I think you will find that the Haitian Slave Revolt killed far more people than the Albigensian Crusade.' It's not all like this, the rest of it is breathlessly potted history - there's more history in this book than 20 others put together, and often very obscure history too - and naturally the poor reader is going to suffer from factual brain overload if he reads this from page 1 to page 565,īut who wants to dip in and read about an event which caused the death of 2 million people and rates 18 on Matthew White's list? Er, so what's this book for? To settle really morbid pub arguments?

The Germans had come so close to winning the First World War they couldn't believe they didn't.Ĭommunism lasted longer than fascism, jazz, John Wayne, Bonanza and the American Motor Corporation.īelieve me, I don't want to discuss Shaka's penis any more than you want to read about it Like one of those countdown programmes on cheesy tv - 2016's 100 Most Shocking Celebrity Moments - it ranks massacres, wars and man-made catastrophes of limitless human suffering and discusses them all in a slightly unnerving jokey chatty unhistorianlike manner : This book isn't in the best possible taste.

Atrocitology humanity's 100 deadliest achievements