From Mein Kampf to Mao’s Little Red Book, dictators have often sought to expound their ideology in print, while some have even turned their hand to creative writing. Starting with the Big Five of 20th-century tyranny – Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Mao – this study also examines the memoirs of Enver Hoxha, the poetry of Serb warlords, the historical fiction of Saddam Hussein and the speeches of Fidel Castro to provide a chilling insight into the despotic mindset.
A Book of the Year for The Times and the Sunday Times
'The writer is the engineer of the human soul,' claimed Stalin. Although one wonders how many found nourishment in Turkmenbashi's Book of the Soul (once required reading for driving tests in Turkmenistan), not to mention Stalin's own poetry. Certainly, to be considered great, a dictator must write, and write lots. Mao had his Little Red Book, Mussolini and Saddam Hussein their romance novels, Kim Jong-il his treatise on the art of film, Hitler his hate-filled tracts. What do they reveal about their authors, the worst people imaginable? And how did they shape twentieth-century history? To find out, Daniel Kalder read them all - the badly written and the astonishingly badly written - so that you don't have to. This is the untold history of books so terrible they should have been crimes.
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https://www.psbooks.co.uk/dictator-literature511322Dictator Literaturehttps://www.psbooks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/5/1/511322_65e22d4cbd6db48395c26b46b8cda39a.jpg7.997.99GBPInStock/Non-Fiction/Categories/Politics, Philosophy & Economics/Non-Fiction/Highlights/Non-Fiction/Categories/Literature, Poetry & Classics/Non-Fiction/Categories/Politics, Philosophy & Economics/Politics/Non-Fiction/Categories/Literature, Poetry & Classics/Literature/Almost Gone/Almost Gone Non-FictionFrom <i>Mein Kampf</i> to Mao’s <i>Little Red Book</i>, dictators have often sought to expound their ideology in print, while some have even turned their hand to creative writing. Starting with the Big Five of 20th-century tyranny – Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Mao – this study also examines the memoirs of Enver Hoxha, the poetry of Serb warlords, the historical fiction of Saddam Hussein and the speeches of Fidel Castro to provide a chilling insight into the despotic mindset.Hardback00add-to-cartrrp_info:£16.99productId:49720bic_code:D, JPHL, JPHXD, JPHL, JPHX£16.99Daniel KalderGeneral223x143mmOneworldNoHardbackLiterature & Poetry
