50 People Who Messed up the World

by Alexander Parker, Tim Richman

Who would top your list of the fifty people who have done the most to make the modern world a worse place?'I can't imagine how they whittled it down to just 50 people' - comedianNik Rabinowitz 'A fantastic thought-provoking book that renews my appreciation for history. It reminds us how we got here and how we can avoid things getting worse'Mandla Shongwe, SAFM Lifestyle'A fascinating, terrific read' Gareth Cliff, CliffCentral From despotic mass-murderers to sports cheats, and from corrupt politicians to truly dreadful celebrities, who has had the most damaging -- or vexatious -- impact in their particular sphere of modern life?This line-up of the very worst of the twentieth century and beyond includes the obvious those who have caused extraordinary damage through their murderous paranoia, brutal avarice, or demented self-regard -- Stalin, King Leopold, Idi Amin and the like. But murderous dictators aside, there are plenty of others who deserve recognition for their role in making the world a significantly more dangerous or, at the very least, more annoying terrorist Carlos the Jackal; Robert Oppenheimer, the man who gave the world the atomic bomb; notorious sports cheat Lance Armstrong; and the one and only President Donald Trump, who has of course succeeded in making the world both more annoying and more dangerous. This perfectly focused spotlight on infamy is illustrated throughout by award-winning political cartoonist Zapiro.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics

434 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2017

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Alex Jones is my age, and he looks at least a decade older. I didn't know that.

It's an interesting book if, perhaps, not as funny as they think they are.

The 50 are mostly men and mostly white, but run not only the political spectrum but also sports, media, and so on. They pick "silly" choices like pop and reality stars, but also serious ones and people they might agree with politically.

There are too many asides and quibs directed at "snowflakes" but the writers seem more centered than anything else.

Of course. when a book says, "we need to learn how to read again - critically and without prejudice", I tend to like it so, I am a bit biased there.

[Amy MC · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book quotes Jordan Peterson, completely without irony, as 'an authority on the psychology of ideological belief and repression' while then freely admitting in the reference section that they are 'indebted' to his YouTube channel. They also include a long quote by Ben Shapiro, again, in complete seriousness.

Up until that point, I thought the majority of the content was extremely interesting, but sadly littered throughout with white middle-aged male turd nuggets of wisdom, which was a shame. The phrase 'millennial snowflakes' was used repeatedly. At one point the original Antifa movement was put on a par with actual Nazi's because they 'normalised political violence'. Sadly, the writers reveal their politics and personal opinions throughout, and spend a huge chunk of the book bemoaning a lack of 'civility' and 'reasoned discourse' which is usually code for 'a woman called me a sexist once, and now I think feminism is CANCER'.

In summary, it could have been excellent, but for me at least, completely ruined by the author(s) need to constantly rail against the 'twitter generation', AKA people that disagree with them and spoil their own self-image that they are logical, reasonable and not at all bigoted.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps the most notable thing about this book is that even the authors, who are self avowed free market supporters who call the World Wildlife Fund 'commie eco groupies' and draw a moral equivalence between Everyday Feminism and Breitbart, can't leave Tony Blair, Bush and the Clintons off their list. Apart from that, we have a gamut from real monsters like Leopold 2 and Hitler to minor irritants at best like Bieber and the Kardashians. Points for including Alex Jones although Gary Allen and the John Birch Society would have been a better choice, as root and inspiration to so much of today's American political extremism.

All in all this is a fairly amusing book at times and a breezy read throughout. Best read as the equivalent of a not too serious semi-educational podcast, although since the authors hate twitter they'll probably have a fit at this comparison.

[Sarah AF · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is *very* different to the impression that you get of it from the cover. There is no humour to be found and, frankly, some of the cartoons inside the book verge on racially insensitive. The authors clearly had their political stance and weren't going to let the highly interesting people in their book get in the way of putting that across at every opportunity. At one point, they actually had the audacity to call out "dehumanising language" despite spending much of the book sneering at "snowflake millenials" so, err, yeah. I learned a lot though, probably stuff I should have already known admittedly, so it wasn't a complete, frustrating waste of time.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kerry 2019 bookclub

A resounding and well earned 5 ⭐️ from me
Thoroughly researched and pithy examination of the bad guys of our time, selected from the 20th century onwards.
Some absolute stand outs - Idi Amin, a textbook lesson in how to ruin a country and kill all the opposition, Tony Blair, an abject lesson in ground zero hypocrisy and undeserved wealth creation.
Enver and Talat - how to commit genocide and get away with it, see Erdogan for modern day application.
Leopold II, truly a monster.
Bernie Madoff, little known to me, the faceless criminal.
Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Stalin & Lenin, Hugo Chavez & Nicolas Maduro - essential reading for young people who think socialism and communism are the antidote to all that is wrong with capitalism.
Communists use democracy to get into power. Then they remove all democratic rights so you can’t resist the crimes that follow, collectivisation, mass imprisonment and elimination of enemies or critics, or the innocent.
Decimation of the economy. Blackout the failures from the world. Rinse and repeat.
Rhodes, Verwoerd & Malan, and the ANC trace the path of how South Africa became the poster child for corruption, and Mark Zuckerberg, because when he fulfils his presidential ambitions we’ll be truly in trouble.

Complete gem of a book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2019

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always a sucker for these kind of books: 50 best of, 101 you have to see ... I have shelves sagging with them. Trouble is, I usually read only 20-30 pages and put them down (please refer to original comment about 'sucker'). Anyway, I loved this from cover to cover. The title could not be more applicable given that you don't get too many books featuring the Kims of North Korea and the Kardashian Kim, or successive entries of Diego Maradona and Josef Mengele. Eclectic to say the least. While some of the characters filling the pages are well known (although I'd never heard of Thomas Midgley) there's always some new angle about each I'd never come across. Best part of all, the authors stick to the middle of the road and clearly don't lean left or right - in fact, they give the extremes of both a huge serve. Will be interested to see what they come up with next.

[Sabu Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books like this make history fun. It’s breezy and doesn’t take itself too seriously (where else can you find Zuckerberg and Spielberg rubbing shoulders with Pol Pot?) The authors have a lightness of touch, making the book both entertaining and edifying.

[Andrew Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

With acerbic wit, Parker & Richman have brought together a gaggle of the glib, the grievous, and the unwonted mostly men who have left their footprint on mankind. Very enjoyable.

[Karishma Udit Chhatrapati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting compilation!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I imagine that the ratings and reviews of this book will be largely determined by the reader's political inclinations. The authors make no attempt to remain impartial in their opinions about the 50 people who have messed up the world, including villains like Trump who everybody loves to hate, but also some more contentious neoliberal politicans such as Blair and the Clintons. Parker and Richman position themselves very much as 'common sense' centrists, despairing just as much about the identity politics and re-emergence of socialism on the left as they are about the populism and nationalism on the right. So if that's likely to cause you upset, this might not be the book for you.

However, given that my views are largely in alignment with the authors', I quite enjoyed this one. They strike a nice balance between keeping it light and humorous without it becoming overly devoid of serious content. They provide a good commentary on each of their chosen figures, providing enough information to reasonably explain why they have been included in the book. I didn't quite agree with all their opinions - I'm not convinced that Corbyn (not one of the titular 50 people, but discussed anyway) would drive the country towards Chavez-style socialist ruin, or that the likes of Bieber and Kardashian are pernicious enough to warrant inclusion alongside Hitler, Stalin and Mao - but I enjoyed reading them nonetheless. 7/10

[Mirjam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise that was immediately spoiled by quoting Jordan Peterson as "an authority on the psychology of ideological belief and repression" to whom the authors are "indebted" -- cool. "Millennial snowflakes" features prominently, Antifa (anti-fascism) was compared to Nazis (fascism) because of how they apparently "normalized political violence" (lol), Ben Shapiro was quoted at length as a reasonable person, SO LET'S SAY HYPOTHETICALLY THAT YOU UM WROTE A BOOK AND UH LET'S SAY THAT (HYPOTHETICALLY) THAT BOOK WAS ABOUT HOW FEMINISM IS CANCER, whatever, don't bother reading this, it's the spoiled whining of two mediocre middle-aged white men who think Kids These Days are obsessed with their phonez.

[Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some truly despicable people in the world and this book informatively shone a light on some of recent history’s worst.
What probably depressed me was that there were a few I didn’t really know of, but of those that I did know, I learned a few more despicable facts. Unfortunately.
At least there were some more light hearted entries there, such as the Beiber.