Customer Reviews

The Most Evil Dictators in History

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

We were unable to purchase this book in Australia. It arrived so quickly we were able to use it for an ongoing ideology asssignment. Many thanks.

There is not going to be a tremendous research work, but so what! The book is hard to put down because it flows well. The reader will learn many things from this book, but it has much that is fairly popularly known. Again, so what? Everybody will pick up at least several new facts about each listed thug, and the beauty of this anthology is that it is put together smoothly enough for a wide range of reader.

We have to sympathize with the author because of the huge number of bad guys to choose from through history. Everyone will say they would have rather had so-and-so named in the book rather than a dictator that made the cut, and the poor writer had to make an attempt to dig up material for several thousand years. It is also a cinch that there were many, many other personages worthy of being condemned, but little documentation to back the claims. What the heck - they're dead anyway. Any author worth her salt is going to select, for the most part, subjects who are fairly current, because these will be the most notorious. Even the current crop are mostly deceased. Wup - add one more: [...] is gone.

This is one you can take to the beach for some medium-strength nonfiction reading. And it is very, very interesting. Impress your friends with the range of your reading choices!

I am an avid reader and writer. As a writer I find it essential to study history and current events. I have recently finished the book, The Most Evil Dictators in History. I found this book excellent. True, there is much more written about each of the 15 evil dictators featured in this book, but this book acts as a perfect place to wet your appetite and launch into studies on historical figures covered by its essays.



The Most Evil Dictators is a well-researched book that features 15 of the most despicable dictators in history, from Herod the Great to Saddam Hussain. The book includes notes and bibliography to help you branch out and read more about the despots it covers. It is an excellent starting point for any history enthusiast.



-Craig Nybo, author of [ ... ]

I'm a reborn history buff and my current focus is dictatorship in many countries. It is not so good to hear that several countries around the world today are still living in it (mostly in Africa, Asia). But it's always good to learn from other country's mistakes. That's probably what this book is for. I have not read about the first few people. I also have to argue about the author's opinion about Stalin being the most influential. I must say that I think Hitler and Genghis Khan would have to outrank him for that. For one thing, Khan did some good things and some bad things; in fact, many people blame the current aridity in the Middle East on him. But Hitler completely changed the course of the 20th century, from everything like the Cold War and the collapse of real Communism. I also read more about Robert Mugabe (leader of Zimbabwe). I was surprised the author did not write about what would happen next if something happened to Mugabe. I would have to say some the people of Zimbabwe would gang up on his regime like they should and bring peace to that troubled African nation. After all, why would they trust a man with a Hitler mustache? This also makes people wonder why the Chinese would give in to Mao (whose actions killed the most people in the 20th century) and why they still do. But the author did a good job analyzing these people.

The book is informative and would be complete, if it included Obama. Otherwise, I recommend it highly.