Dictator's Handbook: A Practical Manual for the Aspiring Tyrant Paperback – June 1, 2012

I read this entire book and loved every minute of it. It is written in a simple, lighthearted, and humorous manner. However, the advice and strategies outlined here are all true, effective, and based on historical fact. Much of the information is actually quite dark, and a potential dictator can definitely use the strategies here to take and keep power. Reader beware!

Very funny in places and is full of great historical examples.

Steal a car, go to jail. Steal a country, and the world will look the other way while you hang on for decades, looting, lying, raping, murdering. I read this book with mounting anger: “I follow the news, so why was I learning about the atrocities of these dictators for the first time? Does no one care? What hope is there for people living under the rule of these thugs? Why does my country (Canada) have trade and diplomatic relations with third-world bandits?” It’s a book that will leave you very, very angry, yet paradoxically, it’s an easy read, almost funny in spots, with scathing sarcasm.If you think dictators can only seize power in banana republics and African backwaters, then read this book and learn to watch for the danger signs. Recognize what is happening in the United States and several European countries. Dictator’s Handbook shows how democracy can be undermined, step by step. . It’s a valuable book.

This book describes how the world really operates. Actual dictators are easy. One man (almost always a man) controls everything through his acolytes. In a democracy, it is less obvious how a small group can control who runs for an office. In a “safe seat” for either major party that person will be elected by a large number of votes. The nomination was likely controlled by a handful of persons.

This book is a description of the habits of dictators over the ages and around the world, written in the form of a how-to guide for a would-be autocrat. (Something like The Prince but taken even further down the road of brazen scheming.)Some of the play-by-play about power grabs will be (sadly) familiar for anyone who pays attention to international news, but there is plenty of real insight into the habits and eccentricities of dictators. Wood and DeLuca point out, for example, that autocrats tend to associate themselves with deceased national heroes, to the point of actual exhumation of bodies in some cases. There is also a list of crackpot dictatorial ideas that have recurred throughout the decades, such as forced migration and misguided wars.The material of the book ranges from the grave (such as psychopathic torture methods employed by various dictators) to the humorous (such as advice on picking a nickname: Great Leader and Dear Leader are helpful; The Goat, not).The Dictator's Handbook is exhaustively footnoted and boasts a bibliography of a stunning 502 works cited, everything from a history of Sparta to very recent news of Hungary's Viktor Orban. Whether you want to manage a riot, spy on your populace, or militarize your society, The Dictator's Handbook shows you how it has been done.

It provides all the tips that you need to take over a country! Thanks to this book, I am ready to give a Coup d'état, and become a dictator. I am just waiting for the appropriate time,

OK..all Indians should read this,to see familiar traits among all leaders starting at Panchayat levels.The fact that not a single Indian appears between the pages of this political primer is ,somewhat a consolation;or are many countries elsewhere is far worse?

as described

Good

Came in perfect condition and a good read.