A timely and compelling exploration of the cult of personality that surrounded eight twentieth century dictators. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Ceausescu, Mengistu of Ethiopia and Duvalier of Haiti. This authoritative, magisterial study, told with great narrative verve, examines how the cult took hold, grew, and sustained itself, turning every person into a sycophant. From a Samuel Johnson prize-winning author.