A review by alexisrt
How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century by Frank Dikötter

3.0

Alas, the book is not a how-to manual. Rather, it's a set of profiles of 8 dictators, examining the cult of personality. Dikötter is a respected historian of China and an effective writer, but the book is not as effective as it could be. It's short--the body of the book comprises only just over 200 pages--and its organization works against it. Since it's organized into discrete chapters on each figure, the segments follow a predictable pattern. They're a sketchy history of the dictator in question, emphasizing their personality and propaganda. The length makes it impossible to get any real detail about the person, and the separation de-emphasizes connection. There are recurring themes between the chapters, but explicit thematic parallels are not drawn. It could have been a much more fascinating book if it had not been arranged chronologically and instead had focused on common threads such as the use of media, the purging of rivals, and so on. In addition, while the public reaction to personality cults is briefly mentioned, there's no real discussion of it or what we know about how people really felt.

That said, it's not a useless book and it was good to get past the usual Hitler and Mao, with profiles of Duvalier and Mengistu included. (The full set is Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il-Sung, Duvalier, Ceausescu, and Mengistu.)