PositiveThe Spectator (UK)Frank Dikötter has written a very lively and concise analysis of the techniques and personalities of eight 20th-century dictators ... As a comparative study of those individuals, it is enlightening and a good read. The title and parts of the foreword indicate that it aspires to be a guidebook of tactics for those aspiring to be dictators and to retain their status as such. There are some weaknesses in this broader ambition ... The best parts of this book are vignettes that will enlighten even those familiar with the lives of most of these men ... This is an unambiguously good book, even if there may be some over-simplification in the assimilation of these people to each other.
