A New Statesman Financial Times and Economist Book of the Year 'Brilliant' NEW STATESMAN
BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Enlightening and a good read' SPECTATOR 'Moving and perceptive' NEW
STATESMAN Mussolini Hitler Stalin Mao Zedong Kim Il-sung Ceausescu Mengistu of Ethiopia
and Duvalier of Haiti. No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can
be grabbed and held temporarily but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can
compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is
that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the twentieth century hundreds
of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm obliged to hail their leaders even as they
were herded down the road to serfdom. In Dictators Frank Dikötter returns to eight of the
most chillingly effective personality cults of the twentieth century. From carefully
choreographed parades to the deliberate cultivation of a shroud of mystery through iron
censorship these dictators ceaselessly worked on their own image and encouraged the population
at large to glorify them. At a time when democracy is in retreat are we seeing a revival of
the same techniques among some of today's world leaders? This timely study told with great
narrative verve examines how a cult takes hold grows and sustains itself. It places the cult
of personality where it belongs at the very heart of tyranny.
