The Most Evil Dictators in History [Hardcover]

Shelley Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2004

This companion volume to "The Most Evil Women in History" and "The Most Evil Men And Women in History" contains complete profiles of notorious despots who have committed some of the most infamous acts in human history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Michael Omara (February 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184317071X
• ISBN-13: 978-1843170716
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #371,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars villains, December 31, 2006

By 

Robbie De Clercq (Gent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Most Evil Dictators in History (Hardcover)

The most evil dictators in this book are:

Herod the Great
Genghis Khan
Shaka Zulu
Josef Stalin
Adols Hitler
Mao Tse-Tung
Anastasio Somoza
'Papa Doc' Duvalier
Kim Il Sung
Augusto Pinochet
Nicolae Ceausescu
Pol Pot
Idi Amin
Saddam Hussein
Robert Mugabe

If you don't know anyhting about these villains, this is the book for you. But, if you want in-depth information about their lives and their crimes, it would be better if you were to read well-known biographies. Nohing new is said here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the most evil dictators in history, April 9, 2011

By 

M. Ryan "Overlly obsesed with Warriors!!!" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Most Evil Dictators in History (Hardcover)

This is a good book about 15 tyrants. I think that the author is telling us her opinion of the 3 worst ancient and mid-evil tyrants and the 12 worst 20th century tyrants.

For the old villains, Shaka and Genghis are good choices. Not only did they kill millions, but they also killed all of their enemies' soldiers and citizens. They did not take prisoners or slaves, they just simply killed their prisoners. That is barbarity that surpasses Hitler's and Stalin's treatment of their prisoners. But why is Herod in here? He was certinaly a monster, but he is not a good choice to be in this book. The author says that there are estimates that 10,000 to 150,000 boys were killed in the Massacre of the Innocents in Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem. Anyone who know nothing of Herod before reading this book would probably think that he deserves a place in this book. But the author doesn't say that historians and the Catholic Church agree that only a few dozen boys were killed because Bethlehem was only a village. There are some historians that even question that the event even happened. There are better choice than Herod such as Vlad Tepes, Ivan the Terrible, Attila, Tamerlane the Great, Francisco Solano Lopez, and Robespiree.

As ar as the 20th centuars ones go, many of them belong in here, but Augusto Pinochet and Anastasio Somoza? There have been worse tyrants than them (in my opinion) such as Leopold II, Lenin, Ante Pavelic, and Hirohito.

Oh, and if Saddam makes it in here, then so should His opponent, Ruhollah Khomeini. The author says that he killed 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, but the author does not say that Saddam tried to negotiate with Iran not so long after the war started. Instead of settling peace, Khomeini send hundreds of thousands of boys armed only with the Qur'an instead of sending his men against Saddam's army which also doesn't get mentioned. Hundreds of thousands of those boy died this way, but there were so many boys that they were able to drive out Saddam's army out of Iran. If the U.s did not support Iraq, Iran would have won using this strategy. It was because of Khomeini that so many died in that war. In addition to his crimes in the war, Khomeini killed about 30,000 people in the 1988 Iranian Massacres in only 5 months and had thousands of others tortured and executed in only a few years. Many also believe that Khomeini paved the way for the Islamic Holy war because he called America the so-called 'Great Satan", which inspired terrorist leaders including Osama. Millions have died because of the Islamic Holy war both literally and spiritually. Many parts in this world are in total chaos because of that and now many people think that Islam is a bad religion, but few would have if none of these things in the Islamic world never happened. Imagine how much more peaceful the world would be if Khomeini had not been in power.

What I did like about this book though is that it is well written and has good grammar. And learning a few new guys. 3 stars for the list, 5 stars for the new information.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evil will always be around, it just wear different names, September 10, 2004

By 

MN "eschermail" (Arvada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Most Evil Dictators in History. (Hardcover)

A very good overview on various dictators like Herod The Great, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pot Pol and even current dictators. It was interesting to realize that whether these were fascist countries (like Genghis Khan or Hitler) that they were really no different than communist/religious dictator countries. They all violate human rights, free speech, and you and your belonging are property of the state.