Wow! One for the wish list. A six-volume extravaganza on the history of evil, with units on antiquity, the medieval age (yes, that’s medieval evil), the early modern period, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the early twentieth century, and mid-twentieth century to today.

It seems that evil became more plentiful in the last 120 years, since two separate volumes of the series were required to document and discuss it. Or perhaps there is simply more to say about more temporally proximate evils. At any rate, this excellent looking new series, edited by Chad Meister and Charles Taliaferro, is published by Routledge. Below is the description of the volume about antiquity.

This first volume of The History of Evil covers Graeco-Roman, Indian, Near Eastern, and Eastern philosophy and religion from 2000 BCE to 450 CE. This book charts the foundations of the history of evil among the major philosophical traditions and world religions, beginning with the oldest recorded traditions: the Vedas and Upaniṣhads, Confucianism and Daoism, and Buddhism, and continuing through Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian schools of thought. This cutting-edge treatment of the history of evil at its crucial and determinative inception will appeal to those with particular interests in the ancient period and early theories and ideas of evil and good, as well as those seeking an understanding of how later philosophical and religious developments were conditioned and shaped.