A Criminal History of Mankind [Hardcover]

Colin Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Colin Wilson lives in Cornwall with his wife. He was born in Leicester in 1931 and left school at sixteen working in several jobs before becoming a full-time writer with the publication of ‘The Outsider’. He is a renowned authority on the paranormal and is the author of over fifty books, with subjects ranging from mysticism to criminology. He has also written articles, plays and contributed to several newspapers and journals. He regards himself primarily as a philosopher concerned with the meaning of human existence, but unlike many ‘existentialists’, his outlook is basically optimistic.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 702 pages
• Publisher: Mercury Books; 2nd edition (November 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845600029
• ISBN-13: 978-1845600020
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,391,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human nature at its darkest, October 19, 2000

By 

Edward (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Criminal History of Mankind (Paperback)

I had read only one book by Colin Wilson ("The Outsider", of course) when I found a paperback in a used-book store. There followed a month of fairly intense reading, because "A Criminal History of Mankind" is fascinating from beginning to end, and many sections I read over again. Wilson divides the book into three main sections: 1) The Psychology of Human Violence 2) A Criminal Outline of History 3) The Age of Mass Murder. In the first section, Wilson notes that criminal actions have been motivated by the "hierarchy of needs":food, shelter, sex, and the need for admiration. (In recent years, we have seen those who commit murder in order to gain fame.) Wilson describes what he calls the "right man", a sociopath obsessed with image and self-esteem. Most of these people are life's losers, but not all. A startling exception is the successful comic actor Peter Sellers, whose son's biography shows Sellers to have been almost criminal in his manic, morbidly obsessive nature. The second section is, by Wilson's own admission, H.G. Wells' "Outline of History" from a criminal point of view, everything from ancient Athens to Victorian London. Interestingly, Wilson writes: "This book is centrally concerned with crime; but if we ignore the creativity, we shall not only fail to understand the crime: we shall miss the whole point of human history." The third section goes into our own era, the Bundys, the DeSalvos, the Mansons. Wilson spends a full 50 blood-drenched pages on the Mafia. The book, published in 1984, touches only briefly on the disturbing increase of children who kill. Along with the horrors, there are pages of incisive philosophy: "It is true that we cannot live without an ego; a person without an ego is little more than an idiot. Another name for ego is personality, and in artists, saints, and philosophers, the personality is a most valuable tool. Neither St Francis nor Beethoven nor Plato would have achieved much impact without their personalities. But the personality is a dangerous servant, for it has a perpetual hankering to become the master. Every time we are carried away by irritation or indignation, personality has mastered us."Violence will always be with us. A casual glance at yesterday's New York Times finds the coverage of a man who threw his baby from a 15-story window while bickering with his wife. But Wilson ends his riveting book with cautious optimism: Referring to the criminal as a distortion of humanity, he writes (and quotes the German poet Novalis) that when humanity itself is aware that this is only a nightmare, we are close to awakening.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of history and philosophy, November 28, 1998

By 

Conangib "conangib" (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Criminal History of Mankind (Paperback)

The title is misleading... this is a work far beyond criminal history. It is comprehensive history and philosophical work... it is Colin Wilson at his best... and as always difficult to find but easy to read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant romp through an unpleasant subject: us, October 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Criminal History of Mankind (Paperback)

An enjoyable and thought-provoking romp through the horror that has been everyday life for most people. If you've read other Wilson I don't have to tell you that there are a good many questionable assertions and several straight-out mistakes. His Roman history section in particular leans way too much on the dazzling but unreliable Suetonius. But I enjoyed it anyway; work your way through three or four of his massive tomes and you can skip college!