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Matthew White
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Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

by Matthew White (Author), Steven Pinker (Foreword, Contributor) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 234 ratings
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“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.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-0393345230
  2. Edition
    Reprint
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    November 7, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    5318 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating read thanks to White’s keen grasp of history and his wry take on the villains of the past."
― Christian Science Monitor

"White . . . gives voice to the suffering of ordinary people that, inexorably, has defined every historical epoch."
― Military Review

"Genius."
― NPR

"[White] doesn’t take sides so much as report the facts―and the death tolls. . . . Full of fascinating information about parts of the world little-known to most Westerners."
― Washington Post

About the Author

Matthew White is the creator of the online Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. His data has been cited by forty-five published books and eighty scholarly articles. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005LW5JMQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (November 7, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 7, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5318 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 689 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 234 ratings

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Matthew White

Matthew White

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
234 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mike3746
5.0 out of 5 stars Like a train wrech, you just can't look away
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2011
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I bought this book with some hesitation. Who wants to read about a billion deaths of human beings brought on by mass homicide? It almost says something about people who would find such a topic interesting. But, I am a student of history and after reading the table of contents, I thought it could give me a few insights I might not have previously heard of. I was delightfully correct. Just about every page I found new facts and insights on historical figures, some of which I had never heard of. And, as a huge plus, Matthew white has a charming writing style that somehow seems to make the study of such gruesome subject matter easy to read all without trivializing the human tragedy of it all. What monsters we humans can be? We are just ghastly creatures and particularly beastly toward our own kind. I came away from the book a bit ashamed I am of the same species as such creeps as "Genghis" Kahn and Napoleon Bonaparte, Mao Tse Tung and Joseph Stalin. I could find no refuge in my European ancestry, either; From famous British monsters who starved millions of Indian Hindus to death deliberately or Spanish conquistadores who systematically murdered and enslaved millions of North American indigenous people. My nationality was no help either as American slave masters and traders helped butcher millions more helpless Africans and slaughter more American natives. It is ghastly, and like any unfolding human disaster you just can't look away.

I also developed a rather intense sick feeling knowing human beings have changed very little over the last ten thousand years. We immodestly pat ourselves on the back as rising to unheard of levels of civilization and enlightened social intercourse. But, whites history is unapologetically inclusive of recent acts of unspeakable barbarity, such as WWII, the senseless monstrosities from the Korean peninsula, and human induced horrors from Central Africa, and other acts of inhuman butchery many of which have happened in this century! White tries to find some pattern to it all in his closing chapters and yet, the reader has to come to the conclusion, there is nothing that can be directly blamed for it except gross human stupidity and madness of mob mentality. We really are a unique species in more way than just our so-called high intelligence. We are crafty apes, with murder in our black hearts. We are ruthless and selfish and pitiless. We are not just capable of grand individual sweeps of specie-cide, we seem to gladly and massively follow the inhuman and murderous orders of any tyrant willing to toss us a few crumbs of moldy bread to us so such evil creatures can magnify their well thought out horrors a million fold. It is fascinating and disgusting, horrible and informative, sickening and intriguing to learn this dark side to our own inner psyche. The word "humanity" takes on an entirely different shade after reading this well written and intensely informative book.
35 people found this helpful
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DACHokie
5.0 out of 5 stars Historically, Life Has No Value …
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2014
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ATROCITIES: THE 100 DEADLIEST EPISODES IN HUMAN HISTORY provides a blunt view at mankind’s destructive ways from the Second Persian War (480 BC) to the Second Congo War (2002). Between these two bookends are a multitude of wars, genocides, rebellions, crusades, revolts and general acts/missions of deadly cruelty that consumed hundreds of millions of lives. As astonishing as the sheer number of deaths are, even more astonishing is that author Matthew White only details and ranks (by death toll) the 100 deadliest events. What makes ATROCITIES such a worthy reference is not only the abundance of details, but the presentation of the material along with White’s mordant narration.

Organized in a chronological manner, each “episode” (war, genocide, etc.) is presented as a chapter. Each chapter includes a summary header that encapsulates the episode by including: death toll, participants, time frame, location, general reasoning behind episode, who or what’s to blame and the episode’s rank on the list of 100. Following the header, White delves into the dirty details of the event in a succinct manner that is rich with details. His witty summaries of each episode include a degree of sarcasm that somehow manages to blend the grave subject manner with a bit of humor. The humor relates mostly to how mankind’s stupidity often leads to mass death … many of the episodes presents will have readers shaking their heads. White makes the depressing topic rather enjoyable to read. There are no illustrations/pictures (other than the cover) and only a handful of maps in the book, but the text renders such visual aids unnecessary. The appendices at the end of the book provide the rationale behind the rankings, additional summarized data and the sources used to create the book.

Overall, ATROCITIES is a terrific and useful reference that brings to light many lesser-known historical events from all over the world. There were quite a few episodes that I had never heard of, especially in Africa. I have always enjoyed almanacs, older versions of the Guinness Book of World records and The Book of Lists, so this book really hit the mark with me.
12 people found this helpful
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Brian S.
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining book on a horrific topic
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2023
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I think Matthew White did a fine job with Atrocities. Dealing with the most deadly "episodes" in human history sounds like a grim topic. However, the book seems to be well researched, well written, and very readable.

The author writes with a sense of humor. I also enjoyed his honesty and thoughtfulness when estimating the deaths associated with events.
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Dayton Lavon Kitchens
5.0 out of 5 stars Virtually Flawless! Outstanding Book By Any Measure!!!!
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2012
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Anyone who has read White's website "Historical Atlas of the 20th Century" will be eager to read his work here in book form. More sweeping and better organized here, White takes on every large scale known act of mass violence ever committed in the recorded history of mankind. With the "cutoff number" being a minimum of 300,000 or more killed. Whites diligent work in obtaining realistic numbers for the various violent acts of man is fascinating as he combines all available sources, logical reasoning, and occasionally educated guess work.

Whites summaries of the various causes of the violence are fascinating and a very useful learning tool for a student of history or someone who simply dabbles in it. This book is a very rare hybrid. A serious informational reference source and full of tidbits for the history buff who just likes to have some handy facts at his command.

The only reservation I can think of is his entry on Peter the Great of Russia. He openly recognizes that Peter was mainly interested in modernizing Russia and moving it out of its backward, ancient past yet he still holds Peter strictly accountable for the 3 million deaths estimated to have occurred during this "modernization" without asking the very real question of whether his actions made life better for millions of Russians in the long run.

All in all an outstanding book.
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Top reviews from other countries

Tina
5.0 out of 5 stars Good price
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2023
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Bought for my grandson birthday, he was very happy with it. Speedy delivery, was used item , so was a bit worried but on arrival was pleased with condition, like new , and fraction on cost !
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John Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Will change what you believe about humankind
Reviewed in Canada on January 3, 2020
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Matthew White walks us through the history of human warfare, slaughter, genocide, conquest and slavery in an attempt to chronicle our savage behaviour, often under the banner of Christ, Mohammed or Yahweh. He writes as an historian, and considers that which other authors have written about the same volume of killings, or the motivation behind them. His estimates of the numbers killed are conservative (445 million), but this is not just a number-counting exercise. The final chapter summarizes and categorizes the homicides, and which leaders were more likely to initiate their murderous campaigns. The only thing missing, in my view, is that he has not addressed WHY humans are so much more blood-thirsty than their primate contemporaries. No other mammal butchers its own members like we do.
I appreciate his writing style - a trace of "gallows humor" that probably helped him through the nightmarish task of writing this book. It might be a haunting read for some people, given that there is no limit to the agony which one person can inflict on another. If you can imagine a horrible torture, it's been done (and may still be going on in some countries).
One final note: if you've been schooled to believe that human beings are born "tabula rasa" (a blank slate), or that good people only do bad things because of wicked social forces, you may have to revise your thinking. Criminologists (a group in which I am a member) are notorious for providing "sociological alibis" for bad behaviour. It could be that we carry a non-adaptive mutation - one which may tragically end life on earth through environmental degradation or a global nuclear war. We're certainly capable of doing it as White has shown.
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Mr. Vance Marcollo
5.0 out of 5 stars The history of humans.
Reviewed in Australia on March 14, 2021
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An extremely thorough overview of the wars of recorded history.
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Mrs. F. M. Pinsker
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2017
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Brilliant book more like a world history. Explains so much clearly.
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E. Ogutu
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in Canada on October 18, 2012
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A good snapshot of historical misdeeds that led to mass casualties due to greed, over inflated egos, miss-communication and a plethora of other avoidable wars that caused so much untold suffering.
The seller was prompt and the book was delivered as advertised. I would do business with them again. Much appreciated
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