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da_bos's review
4.0
This is quite well done. As a graphic essay, it has the potential to reach a broader audience than your usual political science treatise. Whether the people that really need to hear this will pick it up and read it, though, remains to be seen.
Two minor quibbles:
In distilling a lot of historical examples as well as some political theory and philosophy into a handy little romp, the authors rely on equally “quick” summaries from news and magazine articles rather than the actual scholarship. Pet peeve, but please give the researchers who have spent years on this their due instead of just citing the journalists and essayists whose work is based on those researchers’ work.
The tone of our “tour guide” seems to shift from time to time: Sometimes he plays the “instructor” teaching readers how to be a dictator, other times he sounds more like a critic of the dictators. I found that a bit distracting. And yes, I realize that this is satire; but I think the satire doesn’t quite work the way it is written in certain parts of the book.
Two minor quibbles:
In distilling a lot of historical examples as well as some political theory and philosophy into a handy little romp, the authors rely on equally “quick” summaries from news and magazine articles rather than the actual scholarship. Pet peeve, but please give the researchers who have spent years on this their due instead of just citing the journalists and essayists whose work is based on those researchers’ work.
The tone of our “tour guide” seems to shift from time to time: Sometimes he plays the “instructor” teaching readers how to be a dictator, other times he sounds more like a critic of the dictators. I found that a bit distracting. And yes, I realize that this is satire; but I think the satire doesn’t quite work the way it is written in certain parts of the book.
kakrucke's review
challenging
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Engaging, but way too glib. In playing up how dictators use showmanship and propaganda, it throws around its own zingers in a way that undermines its otherwise important critique.