This booklet contains eight vignettes of dictators, ranging from Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, to Kim Il-sung, Duvalier (Papa Doc), Ceausescu and Mengistu of Ethiopia. Not all descriptions are as interesting. What lacks is a comparative and conceptual overview of the phenomenon of dictators that rely on personality cults. That represents a missed opportunity.

Reading these mini CVs invites comparison and conceptualisation – all share a relatively innocuous (failed or stunted) start, meteoric rise (often due to certain auspicious circumstances), attainment of a seat of power, immediate (or slightly delayed) start of a killing spree of potential competitors, hunting down potential opposition in cruel ways at a mass scale, reform of the constitutional State, and ultimately an often ignominious downfall in obscurity or hell. Becoming a dictator in the twentieth century was not a profession without risks – Mussolini and Ceausescu were both subjected to mob executions (25%), Hitler killed himself before the Russians did, Mengistu had to flee before the final downfall of his regime. That means only 50% of our famous sample died of natural causes (Mengistu could still follow).

There are differences in the kind of personality cult that these eight monsters established – Hitler, Mao and Ceausescu did not want statues of themselves placed whilst still in office. Some dictators were late in the game of establishing a personality cult (e.g. Mengistu only fell for the idea after being ululated by half a million of North Koreans during a visit to Pyongyang). But all of the eight in the course of their stint in office decided to go for some kind of hollow ideology or Thought, published in booklets, tomes, slogans and songs, and all of them engaged in some form of rewriting of the history of their nation which proved the inevitability and munificence of their rule.

Dikötter excels when he writes on home ground (Stalin and Mao’s contributions are well-informed and outright cynical at times). Mussolini and Mengistu’s contributions are somewhat eclectic and difficult to follow in terms of structuring. Overall this booklet leaves one desiring for more. More theory, more comparison, more profound thinking about the personality cult Dikötter almost casually introduces. ( )