How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century

From the Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of China After Mao, a sweeping and timely study of twentieth-century dictators and the development of the modern cult of personality.

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. In the twentieth century, as new technologies allowed leaders to place their image and voice directly into their citizens' homes, a new phenomenon appeared where dictators ex...