Revolution sweeps Louis Zander, a charismatic philosopher of art and politics known as L, into power as dictator of England. This skillfully composed story could be a fictional realization of the Cloward-Piven strategy or Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. It is a page-turner that traces the process by which one evil man seduces, perverts and destroys an entire nation. L could be Hitler, Stalin, or even the next Prime Minister or President. Jillian Becker was inspired to write this novel while researching her internationally best-selling book, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
*
L: A Novel History deserves to take its place among the great dystopias - The Trial, 1984, Atlas Shrugged - alas the most salient literary genre of the last hundred years. - Theodore Dalrymple, author of Life at the Bottom; Our Culture, What's Left Of It; contributing editor City Journal; contributor Wall Street Journal.
Penetrating as L is as a study of an artist-dictator's mind, it is also very witty. There are situations reminiscent of the British TV series Yes Prime Minister combined with the cruelty of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. - Dr. Josef Zaruba-Pfefferman, Institute of Art History, Charles University, Prague
Superbly engrossing - Kirkus Reviews

First published in 1977 in the US and Britain to universal critical acclaim, Hitler's Children quickly became a world-wide best seller, translated into many other languages, including Japanese.

It tells the story of the West German terrorists who emerged out of the 'New Left' student protest movement of the late 1960s. With bombs and bullets they started killing in the name of 'peace'. Almost all of them came from prosperous, educated families. They were 'Hitler's children' not only in that they had been born in or immediately after the Nazi period - some of their parents having been members of the Nazi party - but also because they were as fiercely against individual freedom as the Nazis were. Their declared ideology was Communism. They were beneficiaries of both American aid and the West German economic miracle. Despising their immeasurable gifts of prosperity and freedom, they 'identified' themselves with Third World victims of wars, poverty and oppression, whose plight they blamed on 'Western imperialism'. In reality, their terrorist activity was for no better cause than self-expression.

Their dreams of leading a revolution were ended when one after another of them died in shoot-outs with the police, or was blown up with his own bomb, or was arrested, tried, and condemned to long terms of imprisonment. All four leaders of the Red Army Faction (dubbed 'the Baader-Meinhof gang' by journalists) committed suicide in prison.

The Palestine Liberation Organization was created by the Arab states as a weapon against Israel, but most of its victims have been Arabs. In Jordan it established itself as a rival power to the state and was forcibly expelled. Its building up of an army in Lebanon led to civil war and Israeli military intervention until it was again expelled in June 1982.

In 1982 and 1983, the author took herself into the midst of war to write this book, journeying for many days on roads known to be mined and ambushed, spent nights in rooms with glassless windows while shells exploded on all sides, and explored the ruins of PLO strongholds in the wake of bombardments, in order to find documents, testimony, and clues of all kinds to the history of the organization. She interviewed members of the many different sides involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The result is a powerful book which explains the structure, aims, tactics and role in middle eastern and world politics of the PLO.

The Palestine Liberation Organization was created by the Arab states as a weapon against Israel, but most of its victims have been Arabs. In Jordan it established itself as a rival power to the state and was forcibly expelled. Its building up of an army in Lebanon led to civil war and Israeli military intervention until it was again expelled in June 1982.

In 1982 and 1983, the author took herself into the midst of war to write this book, journeying for many days on roads known to be mined and ambushed, spent nights in rooms with glassless windows while shells exploded on all sides, and explored the ruins of PLO strongholds in the wake of bombardments, in order to find documents, testimony, and clues of all kinds to the history of the organization. She interviewed members of the many different sides involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The result is a powerful book which explains the structure, aims, tactics and role in middle eastern and world politics of the PLO.

Revolution sweeps Louis Zander, a charismatic philosopher of art and politics known as L, into power as dictator of England. This skillfully composed story could be a fictional realization of the Cloward-Piven strategy or Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. It is a page-turner that traces the process by which one evil man seduces, perverts and destroys an entire nation. L could be Hitler, Stalin, or even the next Prime Minister or President. Jillian Becker was inspired to write this novel while researching her internationally best-selling book, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
*
L: A Novel History deserves to take its place among the great dystopias - The Trial, 1984, Atlas Shrugged - alas the most salient literary genre of the last hundred years. - Theodore Dalrymple, author of Life at the Bottom; Our Culture, What's Left Of It; contributing editor City Journal; contributor Wall Street Journal.
Penetrating as L is as a study of an artist-dictator's mind, it is also very witty. There are situations reminiscent of the British TV series Yes Prime Minister combined with the cruelty of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. - Dr. Josef Zaruba-Pfefferman, Institute of Art History, Charles University, Prague
Superbly engrossing - Kirkus Reviews