It's amazing that we're still here.

Today's eccentricity is a somewhat macabre book with the charming title of:

Atrocitology - Humanity's 100 deadliest achievements.

It's written by Matthew White, a self proclaimed atrocitologist who has received praise for his work from amongst others Harvard.

When I leafed through this rather hefty book (669 pages incl. the index), I thought it was going to be heavy going, but I was pleasantly surprised.

In a nutshell, this book goes through the 100 events in recorded history that has claimed the most lives, but only the ones we have inflicted on ourselves. So the Black Death and it's ilk are out, as are all natural disasters. This means it's mostly war, but there are a few other massive cruelties scattered about. Of course there are few bits missing here and there, but in order to make this book, an event has to have a death toll of at least 300.000 people, so that can't be helped.

The Atrocitology is listed in chronological order, rather than by amount of casualties, starting with the Second Persian war (480-479 BCE) and goes all the way up to the Second Congo War (1998-2002). This of course leaves almost 2500 years of nasty behaviour, and an incredible amount of dead people.

So how can such a catalogue of suffering and misery be a good read?

First off, it's the way Mr. White writes. He has a wonderful way of using humour and irony without being disrespectful.

Secondly if you, like me, love history and trivia (and you're preferably a bit morbid) this book will give you a great overview of a large portion of history. The development and destruction of Tribes, Nations and Empires, and how it has influenced the world, even today.

Finally, very few chapters are more than a couple of pages long, and even then, Mr. White doesn't dwell on any details that would upset delicate stomachs. Broad sweeps in other words.

The Atrocitology is a great book, and not one to be overlooked. I learned a tremendous amount from this work, and in the process got a better understanding of not only the history of the world, but also of humanity itself. Very little has changed over the millenia. We're still bastards.