After the First World War, democracy appeared to have won. Within years, powerful men were promising their nations something more urgent: order. How had the age of liberty become an age of dictators?<\/p>\n
Jacques Bainville searches for an answer across two thousand years. From the tyrants of Greece and the fall of the Roman Republic to Cromwell, Napoleon, the caudillos of Latin America, Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitler, he follows the moment when a society begins to trust one person more than its institutions.<\/p>\n
His reversals are provocative. Ancient tyrants can appear as champions of the people; republics can protect a privileged few; revolutions can end in absolute power. Bainville also sees that a dictator rules through belief as well as force\u2014through legends, ceremonies, and the promise to restore a nation\u2019s destiny.<\/p>\n
Written in the turbulent 1930s, The Dictators<\/em> bears the marks of Bainville\u2019s own political sympathies. This edition\u2019s notes illuminate both the originality of his argument and the limits of his judgments. At its heart lies a question for any age: what happens to a people\u2019s freedom when a strong hand begins to look like its only hope?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every dictator begins as someone\u2019s answer to a crisis.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2591,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[1897,1643,43,2176,69],"product_tag":[3524,3749,3748,3750,3747,3744,3746,25,3751,3745],"class_list":["post-2589","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-histoire","product_cat-philosophie-politique","product_cat-politique","product_cat-psychologie-criminologique","product_cat-sociologie","product_tag-authoritarianism","product_tag-caesarism","product_tag-democracy-and-dictatorship","product_tag-fascism","product_tag-history-of-dictatorship","product_tag-jacques-bainville","product_tag-les-dictateurs","product_tag-political-philosophy","product_tag-political-power","product_tag-the-dictators","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","first","instock","downloadable","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n