its_kievan's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.5
While Dikötter clearly knows his history, for a book titled “How to Be a Dictator” there’s surprisingly little information about how exactly these cults of personality were developed. Dikötter’s summaries of each dictator make mention of statues, badges, and propaganda broadcasts, but read more like Wikipedia summaries than in-depth analyses. Crucially, he makes no real effort to compare his subjects to one another or to interrogate how and why they were able to seize and maintain power. Again, the summaries are well-written and well-researched, but they leave you with the impression that dictatorships are a naturally-occurring, cyclical event - like a monsoon season with a higher death toll.
jatinnagpal's review against another edition
2.0
Not a terrible book, but it wasn't really related to the title at all
sakisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.5
✨ Gifted ✨
This book was a very intriguing insight into dictators’ lives. I was unaware that Frank Dikötter was the go-to person for the topic! Before I read this as well, I’d not even heard of Ceausescu (of Romania), Mengistu (of Ethiopia) and Duvalier (of Haiti) 😳 Wild!
I’m giving it a 3.5 out of 5 stars because although I wasn’t always gripped, the writing was mostly concise and I felt like I could get an understanding of what times were like during these dictators’ rulings 🥲
I’m recommending it to anyone who’s not heard of the dictators, to get a look into their lives; this book is a good start 👏🏼
Thank you! ✨
This book was a very intriguing insight into dictators’ lives. I was unaware that Frank Dikötter was the go-to person for the topic! Before I read this as well, I’d not even heard of Ceausescu (of Romania), Mengistu (of Ethiopia) and Duvalier (of Haiti) 😳 Wild!
I’m giving it a 3.5 out of 5 stars because although I wasn’t always gripped, the writing was mostly concise and I felt like I could get an understanding of what times were like during these dictators’ rulings 🥲
I’m recommending it to anyone who’s not heard of the dictators, to get a look into their lives; this book is a good start 👏🏼
Thank you! ✨
azn_trang's review against another edition
3.0
Sadly this is not an instruction manual... jk. This is just a biography of a selection of dictators but it doesn't really go into specifics or details of the methods they use to get to where they were. I thought it would be more like the Netflix series "How to be a Tyrant" where they lay out the propaganda methods but it wasn't really it.
carlos1979's review against another edition
dark
informative
fast-paced
2.5
Very brief account of dictators, so much so that it tends to rush through how the end came for all of them.