When Wilson says he's writing a history of mankind, he's not kidding! This book covers the full sweep of human history from before Homo sapiens to the 1970s. (I have the first edition, published in 1980.) It encompasses not only true crime but gobs of history, sociology, psychology and philosophy, and alludes to many and various classic books and essays. It must have taken Wilson years to research this thing. If you've a mind for an ambitious reading project (700 pages), this book is as good as any. I sure learned a lot. (

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meggyweg | Mar 6, 2009 |

Wilson's war v. short-cut specialists. There's no easy path to enlightenment, it seems. The ever busy Wilson knows of no short-cut, certainly. (

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Porius | Dec 28, 2008 |

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1984

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0881846465, Paperback)

Colin Wilson tells the story of human violence from Peking Man to the Mafia - taking into account the calculated sadism of the Assyrians, the opportunism of the Greek pirates, the brutality that made Rome the ‘razor king of the Mediterranean’, the mindless destruction of the Vandals, the mass slaughter of Genghis Khan, Tamurlane, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler and more. Each age has a unique characteristic pattern of crime. In the past three centuries crime has changed and evolved until the sex killer and the mass murderer have become symbols of all that is worst about our civilization. But this is not just a study in human depravity; it is an attempt to place crime in perspective against human discovery, exploration and invention. The result is a completely new approach to the history and psychology of human violence.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:56 -0400)

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