The Dictators
The acclaimed account of the world's worst dictators - a must-read for anyone interested in global history and politics
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 Months Free
$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.
Buy Now for $35.40
-
Narrated by:
-
Iain Dale
-
By:
-
Iain Dale
Were the signs that Putin is a ruthless dictator there all along? How should we deal with President Xi of China? It is time to seek warnings, and lessons, from history.
In The Dictators, Iain Dale brings together 64 essays by historians, academics, journalists and politicians about elected and unelected dictators, wartime and peacetime dictators, those driven by ideology and those with a reputation for sheer brutality. How did these tyrants, autocrats and despots seize power - and how did they exercise it? And how did they lose it? Very few dictators die peacefully in their own beds, after all.
Only by examining these figures from the 6th century BC to the present, from ancient Greece to present day Saudi Arabia, do patterns start to emerge. We can see the shared character traits, the common conditions, the patterns of behaviour that have enabled dictators to seize power - time and time again.
The Dictators is acutely relevant to world politics today: it is indeed a warning from history. Will we take heed? Or will history, in fact, teach us that history teaches us nothing?©2024 Iain Dale
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
Not sure about this book. It appears the most salacious gossip regarding these monsters is taken for fact. And of course, the only female to appear …the Empress Wu is a sex starved fiend of more in keeping with the fantasies of these male writers . Powerful women are either saints or whores. This book is a disappointment.
Good Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.