Edition |
First edition. |
Description |
xvi, 379 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [355]-364) and index. |
Contents |
Introduction: Tradition and the individual tyrant -- Phase I: The dictator's canon -- Lenin -- Stalin -- Mussolini -- Hitler -- Mao -- Phase II: Tyranny and mutation -- Small demons -- Catholic action -- Disembraining machines -- Eastern approaches -- Dead letters -- Another green world -- Phase III: Dissolution and madness -- Midnight in the garden of ultraboredom -- North Korea: the metafictions of Kim Jong-il -- Cuba: Castro's maximum verbiage -- Iraq: the historical romances of Saddam Hussein -- Post-Soviet: Comrade Zoroaster -- Turkmenistan: post-everything -- Phase IV: Death is not the end -- Conclusion. |
Summary |
"A harrowing tour of 'dictator literature' in the twentieth-century, featuring the soul-killing prose and poetry of Hitler, Mao, and many more, which shows how books have sometimes shaped the world for the worse." -- From book jacket. |
Subject |
Dictators as authors -- History.
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Revolutionary literature -- Authorship.
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ISBN |
9781627793421 (hardcover) |
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1627793429 (hardcover) |
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