Reviews for Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime

The average rating for Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-06-24 00:00:00 Hanna Rodgers The author is very blunt in his Preface: this book is 'idiosyncratic and light-hearted' and he 'made no pretense at objectivity'. He is clear that he expresses his opinion through the entire book. No one can be objective with a subject like Literature, it would be an impossible task. You can mention every relevant literary figure and his/her most important pieces of work without being disrespectful if something doesn't like you. Rothwell states this book is 'massively shorter' than the ones Oxford had edited. Those are more "serious" books maybe. Though, this one is openly subjective and it has one particular aspect which will help us decide if we want to go on reading a specific author's work: quotes. Rothwell did a marvelous job choosing some lines, passages, extracts or poems which will definitely help you make up your minds to know if they appeal to you or not. Although Rothwell accepts he cannot rival the capability of PhD scores, he purposefully leads the reader to have an introduction to literature. There can be, however, some entries which lack elaboration like the ones of George Bernard Shaw or Charles Darwin, for example. But I think this is because he either finds no use in elaborating or he doesn't have much interest in those authors. This book is comprehensible and easy to read. The author "talks" to the reader, sharing his opinions- being funny or ironic at times- because we all know there are some writers that we simply CANNOT read without wanting to murder someone. I will end this review quoting David Rothwell in his entry to 'carpe diem': 'This is a Latin phrase which means 'seize the day' or, more comprehensibly, 'do something worthwhile with every second of the day instead of just lounging around'. As you will immediately realise, it is a very dubious imperative. If you lounge around, you hurt no one, but if you do something that you regard as worthwhile, you can end up with a Middle-Eastern war, the collapse of a bank, a writ for libel or a whole range of undesirable side effects.'

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-10 00:00:00 RENEE POLIT The title of this book, "A to Z of English literature", fails on several levels. 1) "A-Z" - the book actually has no Z entry. Consequently, A-Y would be more fitting. 2) "English" - the book, while focusing heavily on entries from the English speaking world, actually goes wider, especially where it concerns the classics. And to be fully pedantic: there's also Scottish, Welsch, Irish, and American works discussed. 3) "Literature" - the work actually focuses heavily on poetry. Okay, so poetry *is* literature, but it's not what one usually thinks of when hearing "literature". The book itself, however, is no failure. It's an amusing overview of what, in Rothwell's opinion, are the works and people you need to know when you want to know and understand English literature. These works can be good, bad, or just plain obscure (get linguists' street cred or ruin pub quizzes). As this is a subjective, personal overview and Rothwell is British, the whole book is written in a delighfully ironic way. Recommended to all English-language literature lovers.