About this item
What makes a country fall to a dictator How do authoritarian leaders -- strongmen -- capable of killing millions acquire their power How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy And what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen againBy profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history -- Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein -- Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen's personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they'd become. Meticulously researched and complete with photographs, Strongman provides insight into the lives of five leaders who callously transformed the world and serves as an invaluable resource in an era when democracy itself seems in peril.
About the Author
Kenneth C. Davis is the author of Don't Know Much About® History, which spent 35 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and gave rise to the Don't Know Much About® series of books and audios.Davis's success aptly makes the case that Americans don't hate history, just the dull version they slept through in class. But many of them want to know now because their kids are asking them questions they can't answer. Davis's approach is to refresh us on the subjects we should have learned in school. He does it by busting myths and setting the record straight. Kenneth C. Davis is a frequent media guest and has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, including NPR, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and CNN. He has been a commentator for All Things Considered, and has written for the New York Times Op-Ed page, Smithsonian, Washington Post, CNN.com and other national publications. His latest books are In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives (2016) and MORE DEADLY THAN WAR: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War (2018) . His forthcoming book, STRONGMAN: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy will be published in October 2020. Davis lives in New York City with his wife. They have two grown children.
