Confronting Evil

I came across Confronting Evil by Bill O’Reilly after hearing him discuss it on a recent episode of the James Altucher Show. The conversation piqued my interest enough to pick up the audiobook.

While I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, I did expect the book to weave together a clearer throughline between the figures it covers. Instead, it reads more like an encyclopaedia of evil with each chapter dedicated to a specific historical and in some cases contemporary figures.

That said, the level of detail and analysis for each subject is impressive. You’d be hard-pressed to finish the book without learning something new. O’Reilly provides thorough insight into each person’s background and the atrocities they committed. The implicit connection across chapters, of course, is the shared moral and human cost of their actions. It’s sobering to consider the staggering number of lives destroyed by the individuals profiled throughout the book. Even as O’Reilly shares stats and figures they’re still difficult to fathom and truly take in.

As uncomfortable as the subject matter may be, books like this are important reminders of what can happen when evil goes unchecked. Being a student of history means not only studying its triumphs but also its darkest moments.

Who’s it for?

Readers with a strong interest in history, particularly 20th-century events and political figures will likely find this worthwhile. It isn’t gratuitously graphic, but the sheer scale of evil discussed can be heavy, so it’s perhaps best approached in parts if you find such content difficult to process.