Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy - Softcover

Kalder, Daniel

 
9781250181602: Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1250181607 ISBN 13: 9781250181602
Verlag: Picador Paper, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

"A mesmerizing study of books by despots great and small, from the familiar to the largely unknown."
-The Washington Post

A darkly humorous tour of "dictator literature" in the twentieth century, featuring the soul-killing prose and poetry of Hitler, Mao, and many more, which shows how books have sometimes shaped the world for the worse

Since the days of the Roman Empire dictators have written books. But in the twentieth-century despots enjoyed unprecedented print runs to (literally) captive audiences. The titans of the genre-Stalin, Mussolini, and Khomeini among them-produced theoretical works, spiritual manifestos, poetry, memoirs, and even the occasional romance novel and established a literary tradition of boundless tedium that continues to this day.

How did the production of literature become central to the running of regimes? What do these books reveal about the dictatorial soul? And how can books and literacy, most often viewed as inherently positive, cause immense and lasting harm? Putting daunting research to revelatory use, Daniel Kalder asks and brilliantly answers these questions.

Marshalled upon the beleaguered shelves of The Infernal Library are the books and commissioned works of the century's most notorious figures. Their words led to the deaths of millions. Their conviction in the significance of their own thoughts brooked no argument. It is perhaps no wonder then, as Kalder argues, that many dictators began their careers as writers.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Daniel Kalder

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Verlag
Picador Paper
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1250181607
ISBN 13 
9781250181602
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
397
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

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