Corruption

From ancient times to modern, corruption has been ingrained in human society and is still a powerful issue in the contemporary world. In A Short History of Corruption, Carlo Brioschi provides a thorough and entertaining look at how corruption has changed over time. He discusses corruption through politics and history from Babylon to modern day U.S. organized crime. " Is corrupt behavior an inescapable fact of political and economic life? And was Julius Caesar a thief? Time has erased the misdeeds and malfeasance of many a historical figure. But from ancient times to modern, corruption has been ingrained in human society and is still a powerful issue in the contemporary world. In Corruption: A Short History, Carlo Brioschi provides a thorough,incisive, and entertaining look at corruption from Babylon to modernday organized crime in the United States and the 2008 financial crisis. This dispassionate analysis gives the reader a full understanding of the characteristics, mechanisms, processes, and effects of corruption over time and helps to deconstruct the effects of dishonesty, bribery, fraud, and others types of corruption on democratic institutions. There is, Brioschi argues, an innate admiration for the trickster or the strong man, and corruption is tolerated because of other human foibles: the accrual of imagined or real benefits or the grand gesture that sweeps away any concern as to how the deed was accomplished, and added to these the possible lack of a moral compass. “Così fan tutti (everyone does it),” the author writes, “. . . it's the way of the world, and the difference between good business and malfeasance is nothing more than a bribe, a payoff, an under-the-table tip.” After taking us on a journey from Mesopotamia, to ancient Athens and Rome, to…