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In the fight for freedom, we must not only understand how tyrants rise - but how they fall. The history of humanity is mostly a history of tyrants. Safe in our democratic societies, it''s easy to take freedom for granted. We shouldn''t. Across the world, autocrats are scoping out territory to conquer and people to oppress, whilst established democracies flirt with strongman rule. To push back on tyranny in the 21st century, we need to learn how these dictators and despots gain power and, crucially, how they lose it. How Tyrants Fall answers this urgent question. Drawing on extensive field research and over a hundred personal interviews with people in and around collapsed regimes, political scientist Marcel Dirsus explores the various conditions that spell the end for despots. Even if, somehow, tyrants thread the needle to avoid both internal and external enemies, then eventually madness or old age comes for them all - and the way they meet their end determines the future of their nation. Filled with stories from Napoleonic France, to the Rum Rebellion in Sydney, to parallel armies in Saddam Hussein''s Iraq, How Tyrants Fall reveals how coups, cronyism, civil war and revolution interlink in the rise and fall of democracies - vital for our grasp of the global political narratives we are witnessing today. By examining how dictators and their demises have shaped international history, Marcel Dirsus draws the blueprint for how to topple tyrants, offering a chink of hope in these times of growing authoritarianism.
About the author
Marcel Dirsus studied at Oxford and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a failed coup in 2013. In addition to writing the politics newsletter The Hundred, Dirsus has advised major foundations and international organisations like NATO and the OECD. You can find him at marceldirsus.com and @marceldirsus on Twitter.
Summary
AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF 2024
'Thought-provoking' THE ECONOMIST
'Compelling' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Entertaining' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Gripping . . . essential and captivating' BRADLEY HOPE
'A sparkling read full of original observations and captivating insights' KATJA HOYER
'Utterly compelling . . . jaw-dropping' BRIAN KLAAS
Strongmen are rising. Democracies are faltering. How does tyranny end?
Tyrants project invincibility, but all of them fall. This is because they face critical weaknesses that can form a fatal trap. Whether it's their inner circle turning against them or resentment of elites in the military, the masses alienated by cronyism or revolutionaries plotting in exile, tyrants always have more enemies than friends. And when they fall tyrants don't quietly retire - they face exile, prison or death. What happens in the aftermath can change the fate of a nation.
Meeting with coup leaders, dissidents and soldiers, political scientist Marcel Dirsus draws on extraordinary interviews to examine the workings and malfunctions of tyrants. We hear from a revolutionary (codename 'Satan') who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre, and an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland on breaks during his construction job.
But understanding dictators isn't enough. How Tyrants Fall is the gripping, deeply researched blueprint for how to bring them down.
