Homo Criminalis, Mark Galeotti
Homo Criminalis, Mark Galeotti
List: $15.75 | Sale: $11.03
Club: $7.87

Homo Criminalis
How crime organises the world

Author: Mark Galeotti

Narrator: Mark Galeotti

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ebury Digital

Published: 08/07/2025

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

When does a bandit become a monarch? When does a gang become a government? And is organised crime at the heart of every modern state?

On a thrilling whistle-stop tour of how the world's criminal underbelly has shaped state-making, capitalism, globalisation and all forms of so-called legitimate power, Homo Criminalis shows the emergence of modern society through the evolution of the underworld and its crimes. From Chinese banditry and eighteenth-century English tea smuggling to today's cocaine submarines and the high-tech crimes of tomorrow, this book shows us how the world's dark underbelly shapes us, no matter how we try to outpace it.

Entertaining, engaging and packed full of fascinating stories, Homo Criminalis is a book for those who want to see our grand story of progress through the surprising and subversive new lens of organised crime.

© Mark Galeotti 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

About Mark Galeotti

Mark Galeotti is senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations, Prague. An expert and prolific author on transnational crime and Russian security affairs, he has also advised the British Foreign Office and many government and law enforcement agencies in Europe and North America.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Abigail on December 29, 2025

Love this author and the way he explains crime and geopolitics. I find his books entertaining and informative, which is a necessity to keep me going in a non fiction! I’m giving 4 stars as I felt the same message was repeated a few times through out, the underworld reflects and responds to the ‘uppe......more

Goodreads review by Luka on November 01, 2025

Een versnippering aan verhalen en anekdotes, met maar weinig statistieken die zijn grote punt ondersteunen: de bovenwereld is onlosmakelijk verbonden met de onderwereld. Het is een geweldig boek als je van verhalen en opzienbare feitjes houdt. Als je de laatste pagina omslaat, heb ik echter niet het......more

Goodreads review by Periplus on September 28, 2025

Di balik wajah dunia modern yang tampak rapi, ternyata ada kekuatan bayangan yang ikut mengatur jalannya sejarah: kriminalitas. Dari penyelundupan teh di abad ke-18, aksi bajak laut, mafia narkotika, hingga serangan siber masa kini, kejahatan bukan hanya sekadar kisah hitam-putih tentang hukum versu......more

Goodreads review by Jemma on February 01, 2026

Some incredibly interesting information (especially because this is one of my weird special interests.) That being said, the book had little coherent structure in the topics, and in terms of what it spoke about, it was a mile long and an inch deep. Sometimes would feel like reading a list of facts p......more

Goodreads review by Becky on January 11, 2026

Found some chapters interesting but had to DNF as I could not get into it. Read more like a history book than was expecting. I prefer more analysis. This did deliver on its title but was just not my kind of thing.......more

Quotes

One of the most astute political commentators on Putin and modern Russia Financial Times

In Homo Criminalis, Mark Galeotti does not shy away from asking the big questions—is every state founded on a crime? Are robbers with of a code of honour a mafia or a kingdom? Why crime flourishes at times of social upheavals? His answers take us on a tour-de-force across the centuries and the continents in a book replete with poignant examples and written in his distinctive style, accessible yet precise. A must read.

From medieval bandits to modern mafias, Homo Criminalis takes us on a fast-paced journey through the underworlds that have shaped our upperworld. Combining captivating storytelling with incisive analysis, Galeotti's sweeping global history makes a compelling case that to truly understand how the world works we must understand the criminals who've helped create it.

In the study of organised crime we often don't look enough at history and in the study of history we don't look enough at organised crime. There is no one better than Galeotti to bridge the divide as he does in Homo Criminalis. His prescient and often witty narrative keeps you reading, and even if you are buried deep in the debate, there are new insights on every page.

Glittering... the author’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject is matched by impressive erudition. Spectator

The readable, scary, fun beach read of new crime literature Financial Times

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List