Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History

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Release : 2011-11-07
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 306/5 ( reviews)

Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History write by Matthew White. This book was released on 2011-11-07. Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. “An amusing (really) account of the murderous ways of despots, slave traders, blundering royals, gladiators and assorted hordes.”—New York Times Evangelists of human progress meet their opposite in Matthew White’s epic examination of history’s one hundred most violent events, or, in White’s piquant phrasing, “the numbers that people want to argue about.” Reaching back to the Second Persian War in 480 BCE and moving chronologically through history, White surrounds hard facts (time and place) and succinct takeaways (who usually gets the blame?) with lively military, social, and political histories.

The Great Big Book of Horrible Things

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Release : 2011-10-25
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 923/5 ( reviews)

The Great Big Book of Horrible Things - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Great Big Book of Horrible Things write by Matthew White. This book was released on 2011-10-25. The Great Big Book of Horrible Things available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A compulsively readable and utterly original account of world history—from an atrocitologist’s point of view. Evangelists of human progress meet their opposite in Matthew White's epic examination of history's one hundred most violent events, or, in White's piquant phrasing, "the numbers that people want to argue about." Reaching back to 480 BCE's second Persian War, White moves chronologically through history to this century's war in the Congo and devotes chapters to each event, where he surrounds hard facts (time and place) and succinct takeaways (who usually gets the blame?) with lively military, social, and political histories. With the eye of a seasoned statistician, White assigns each entry a ranking based on body count, and in doing so he gives voice to the suffering of ordinary people that, inexorably, has defined every historical epoch. By turns droll, insightful, matter-of-fact, and ultimately sympathetic to those who died, The Great Big Book of Horrible Things gives readers a chance to reach their own conclusions while offering a stark reminder of the darkness of the human heart.

Atrocitology

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Release : 2011-10-31
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 767/5 ( reviews)

Atrocitology - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Atrocitology write by Matthew White. This book was released on 2011-10-31. Atrocitology available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Which wars killed the most people? Was the twentieth century the most violent in history? Are religions, tyrants or ideologies responsible for the greatest bloodshed? In this remarkable and original book, 'atrocitologist' Matthew White assesses man's inhumanity to man over several thousand years. From the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage to the cataclysmic events of World War II, Atrocitology spans centuries and civilisations as it measures the hundred most violent episodes in history. Relying on statistical analysis rather than grand theories, White offers three big lessons: chaos is more deadly than tyranny, the world is much more disorganised than we realise, and more civilians than soldiers are killed in wars—in fact, the army is usually the safest place to be during wartime. Our understanding of history's worst atrocities is patchy and skewed. This book sets the record straight, charting those events with the largest man-made death tolls without fear or favour.

War in Human Civilization

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Release : 2008
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 631/5 ( reviews)

War in Human Civilization - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook War in Human Civilization write by Azar Gat. This book was released on 2008. War in Human Civilization available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention? And what of war today: is it a declining phenomenon or simply changing its shape? This book sets out to find definitive answers to these questions in an attempt to unravel the riddle of war throughout human history.

War Before Civilization

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Release : 1997-12-18
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 700/5 ( reviews)

War Before Civilization - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook War Before Civilization write by Lawrence H. Keeley. This book was released on 1997-12-18. War Before Civilization available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.