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Zusatztext Delicious work, beautifully and acerbically written by a cultured man of a kind achingly rare in our world of intellectual short cuts and tawdry soundbites. Informationen zum Autor Ferdinand Mount Klappentext 'Wry, informative but deadly - a great book' Will Hutton 'Fast-paced and impassioned' Sunday Telegraph Who said that dictatorship was dead? The world today is full of Strong Men and their imitators. A fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seized power and why they fell. There is a comforting illusion shared by historians and political commentators, that history progresses in a nice straight line towards liberal democracy or socialism, despite the odd hiccup.Every democracy, however sophisticated or stable it may look, has been attacked or actually destroyed by a would-be Caesar, from Ancient Greece to the present day. Marx was wrong. Caesarism is not an absurd throwback, it is an ever-present danger.There are Big Caesars who set out to achieve total social control and Little Caesars who merely want to run an agreeable kleptocracy without opposition: from Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell through Napoleon and Bolivar, to Mussolini, Salazar, De Gaulle and Trump. The saga of Boris Johnson and Brexit is a vivid, if Lilliputian instance of the same phenomenon.The final part of this book describes how and why would-be Caesars come to grief, from the Gunpowder Plot to Trump's march on the Capitol and the ejection of Boris Johnson by his own MPs, and ends with a defence of the grubby glories of parliamentary politics. Vorwort Who said that dictatorship was dead? The world today is full of Strong Men and their imitators. Caesarism is alive and well. Ferdinand Mount opens up a fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seize power and why they fall. Zusammenfassung A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR Who said that dictatorship was dead? The world today is full of Strong Men and their imitators. Caesarism is alive and well. Yet in modern times it's become a strangely neglected subject. Ferdinand Mount opens up a fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seize power and why they fall. "Fast paced and impassioned" -- Sunday Telegraph "Wonderfully wry" -- The Guardian "...a delight" -- Sunday Times "Delicious work, beautifully and acerbically written" -- Wall Street Journal There is a comforting illusion shared by historians and political commentators from Fukuyama back to Macaulay, Mill and Marx, that history progresses in a nice straight line towards liberal democracy or socialism, despite the odd hiccup. In reality, every democracy, however sophisticated or stable it may look, has been attacked or actually destroyed by a would-be Caesar, from Ancient Greece to the present day. Marx was wrong. This Caesarism is not an absurd throwback, it is an ever-present danger. There are Big Caesars who set out to achieve total social control and Little Caesars who merely want to run an agreeable kleptocracy without opposition: from Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell through Napoleon and Bolivar, to Mussolini, Salazar, De Gaulle and Trump. The saga of Boris Johnson and Brexit frequently crops up in this author's narrative as a vivid, if Lilliputian instance of the same phenomenon. The final part of this book describes how and why would-be Caesars come to grief, from the Gunpowder Plot to Trump's march on the Capitol and the ejection of Boris Johnson by his own MPs, and ends with a defence of the grubby glories of parliamentary politics and a thought-provoking roadmap of the way back to constitutional government. Inhaltsverzeichnis PROLOGUE PART ONE THE IDEA OF A CAESAR 1 Why is he there? 2 The Hero Worshipper 3 Augustus and Auguste - and Adolf 4 The Comforting Illusion 5 How it Starts PART TWO THE MAKING OF CAESARS 1 The Invention of Charisma 2...
