Strongmen cover art

Strongmen

How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall

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Strongmen

By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
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About this listen

Ours is the age of the strongman. Russia, India, Turkey and America are ruled by men who, as they have risen to the top, have reshaped their countries around them, creating cults of personality which earn the loyalty of millions. And as they do so, they draw on a playbook of behaviour established by figures such as Benito Mussolini, Muammar Gaddafi and Adolf Hitler.

Here, political historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat draws on analysis of everything from everything from gender to corruption and propaganda to explain who these political figures are - and how they manipulate our own history, fears and desires in search of power at any cost.

©2020 Ruth Ben-Ghiat (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK Politics & Government United States World Imperialism Military War

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All stars
Most relevant  
A timely read with what's happening around the world, Ben-Ghiat's documentation of Authoritarianism and its life cycles is a truly brilliant book. Could not recommend it more highly, 100% worth listening to.

Absolutely Fantastic

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A hundred years of strongmen - Ben Ghiat shows they're all so similar, and therefore so predictable.
Exposing the strongman's playbook, this study also shows how to reject them.
Read, listen to or watch more than just one news outlet, stay on speaking terms with those that disagree with you,
go vote, and stand up to the "great men" long before it will cost you your job, your citizenship, your life.

The book is a work of genius, the delivery... mwah ... the narrator reads the text correctly ... but that's it.

You have been warned...

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Narration is monotonic with no pauses to differentiate paragraphs. Makes it hard to follow, I had to skip back often.

Narration is poor

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Could not finish the book because with 3hrs 19 to go there are very graphic and gratuitous descriptions of physical torture. It wasn't necessary to the arguments being made at this point in the book. No warning is made that such graphic violence is in this book. I read true crime but found the scenes so bad that despite turning off the book I could not get the words and images out of my head for over a week. This book needs a trigger warning and over 18 rating.

TRIGGER WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF TORTURE

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The description of characters, habits and trajectories of different dictators is compelling, but the book could use deeper analysis of what connects different strongman. As is, the book is a collection of case studies rather than distillation of uniform "theory of dictatorship".

Clear, but without an integrating analysis

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