Strongmen cover art

Strongmen

How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Strongmen

By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Ours is the age of the strongman. Russia, India, Turkey and America are ruled by men who, as they have risen to the top, have reshaped their countries around them, creating cults of personality which earn the loyalty of millions. And as they do so, they draw on a playbook of behaviour established by figures such as Benito Mussolini, Muammar Gaddafi and Adolf Hitler.

Here, political historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat draws on analysis of everything from everything from gender to corruption and propaganda to explain who these political figures are - and how they manipulate our own history, fears and desires in search of power at any cost.

©2020 Ruth Ben-Ghiat (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK
United States World Imperialism Military War
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Tired of Winning cover art
Enough cover art
How They Broke Britain cover art
How Fascism Works cover art
Thank You for Your Servitude cover art
The Divider cover art
Kingdom of the Unjust cover art
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump cover art
Untouchable cover art
Inside Iran cover art
A Time of Fear cover art
It Was All a Lie cover art
Why We Did It cover art
American Psychosis cover art
The Decade in Tory cover art
Hiding in Plain Sight cover art

What listeners say about Strongmen

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

You have been warned...

A hundred years of strongmen - Ben Ghiat shows they're all so similar, and therefore so predictable.
Exposing the strongman's playbook, this study also shows how to reject them.
Read, listen to or watch more than just one news outlet, stay on speaking terms with those that disagree with you,
go vote, and stand up to the "great men" long before it will cost you your job, your citizenship, your life.

The book is a work of genius, the delivery... mwah ... the narrator reads the text correctly ... but that's it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely Fantastic

A timely read with what's happening around the world, Ben-Ghiat's documentation of Authoritarianism and its life cycles is a truly brilliant book. Could not recommend it more highly, 100% worth listening to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narration is poor

Narration is monotonic with no pauses to differentiate paragraphs. Makes it hard to follow, I had to skip back often.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

TRIGGER WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF TORTURE

Could not finish the book because with 3hrs 19 to go there are very graphic and gratuitous descriptions of physical torture. It wasn't necessary to the arguments being made at this point in the book. No warning is made that such graphic violence is in this book. I read true crime but found the scenes so bad that despite turning off the book I could not get the words and images out of my head for over a week. This book needs a trigger warning and over 18 rating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Clear, but without an integrating analysis

The description of characters, habits and trajectories of different dictators is compelling, but the book could use deeper analysis of what connects different strongman. As is, the book is a collection of case studies rather than distillation of uniform "theory of dictatorship".

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful