A well-informed, convincing analysis of the most oppressive regimes
of our century and what we can learn from them for the future, by
Chirot (Political science/Northwestern; Social Change in the Modern
Era, etc. - not reviewed). Well over one hundred million people
have died and the lives of several billion have been wrecked as a
result of war and political oppression in the 20th century. Chirot
guides us along the ultimate rogues' gallery as he looks at modern
tyrants from Stalin and Hitler down to Saddam Hussein, Kim Il Sung,
and at the ongoing problems of Haiti. Along the way, he argues that
the modern tyrant is different from his predecessors in history
because his motivation is ideological and his cruelty is thus more
deliberate and far-reaching. Modern tyranny, Chirot says, is most
likely to occur when nationalism combined with deep resentment
against foreign influence emerges in a weak state, and when the
notion of scientific certainty is applied to theories that justify
massive social and racial engineering in order to bring about
utopias. Chirot's studies of his 13 tyrants are nuanced and well
documented, and his thought seems to owe much to Karl Popper. He
writes history in order to elucidate, not merely to relate; yet he
avoids moralizing and rhetoric, drawing just a few modest and
well-argued conclusions. Modern tyranny has not ended with
communism, he says, and it is going to stay with us. If its essence
is a "tyranny of certainty," based on theories of group conflict,
Chirot's prescription is flexibility, a dogged faith in democratic
processes, and an unrelenting awareness that the individual is more
than just a functioning member of the community. No simple answers
here but perceptive insights intelligently presented. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Along with its much vaunted progress in scientific and economic
realms, the twentieth century has witnessed the rise of the most
brutal and oppressive regimes in the history of humankind. Even
with the collapse of Marxism, current instances of "ethnic
cleansing" remind us that tyranny persists in our own age and shows
no sign of abating. Daniel Chirot offers an important and timely
study of modern tyrants, both revealing the forces that allow them
to come to power and helping us to predict where they may arise in
the future.
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