A history of the crimes of the 20th century’s most notorious dictators would fill libraries. Countless authors have dedicated decades of their lives to minutely detailing the murders, famines, wars and other atrocities perpetrated by great beasts of political horror such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao. And yet one area of dictatorial infamy has been shockingly neglected: the crimes of tyrants against literature.
Almost every dictator has been a prolific author, and their books occupied the space in their societies that is usually allotted to sacred texts. To understand history’s demons and the millions of souls they delighted in torturing, we must engage with their books. A journey to the end of the literary night, combining mind-bending explorations of the avant-garde of boredom with history, politics and biography – and leavened with a darkly humorous wit – Dictator Literature is the true story of the worst books in the world.
Almost every dictator has been a prolific author, and their books occupied the space in their societies that is usually allotted to sacred texts. To understand history’s demons and the millions of souls they delighted in torturing, we must engage with their books. A journey to the end of the literary night, combining mind-bending explorations of the avant-garde of boredom with history, politics and biography – and leavened with a darkly humorous wit – Dictator Literature is the true story of the worst books in the world.
