
Product details:
ISBN13: | 9781914487057 |
ISBN10: | 1914487052 |
Binding: | Hardback |
No. of pages: | 320 pages |
Size: | 234x153x21 mm |
Language: | English |
700 |
Category:
The Language of Evil
How Dictators Manipulate the Masses and Wield Power Through Words
Publisher: Canbury Press
Date of Publication: 24 April 2025
Number of Volumes: Hardback
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Short description:
In this entertaining and revealing history, professional speechwriter Guy Doza charts how some of the most bloodthirsty and energetic dictators grabbed and maintained power through their skilled use of words.
Long description:
To kill democracy, control the masses and destroy entire nations, dictators have always used the same secret weapon: the unmatched power of the spoken word.
In this captivating history of language and power, speechwriter Guy Doza sets out how dictators have seized and maintained control of states through their mastery of oratory.
He shows how, despite their fearsome reputation, strongmen such as Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were surprisingly subtle and skillful in their speeches. Less notorious female tyrants (have you heard of Ranavalona I, the ‘Mad Queen of Madagascar’ who killed half of her subjects, or Chairman Mao’s murderous wife Jiang Qing?) were differently but equally manipulative.
As well as revealing the wordplay of each of 18 despots, Doza analyses the rhetorical techniques they shared. How Attila the Hun and Napoleon Bonaparte showered flattery on their troops and deliberately aggrandised their enemies. And how two violent 20th Century leaders, Zaire’s President Mobuto and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, portrayed themselves as the father of their respective nations to nurture their ethos.
For, irrespective of time, geography and language, dictators and their allies consistently reuse the same methods of persuasion. In a ‘post-truth’ age where simplified messages overpower sophisticated ones, The Language of Evil equips readers to spot the same tricks and techniques being used today by tomorrow’s would-be dictators.
Reviews
'The handbook that humanity needs right now &&&8211; not simply to understand the dangerous rhetoric of demagogues, but how to resist it.' &&&8211; Terry Szuplat, former policy speechwriter for President Barack Obama and author of Say It Well.
‘Whatever happens in the street, the populist mobs have to be fired up first. That’s where words come in. Guy Doza’s Language of Evil is a fascinating analysis of the speechifying that empowers tyranny through the malign careers of eighteen dictators, from Julius Caesar to Saddam Hussein.
'Gun, clubs, camps and torture chambers come next, but without words to set things going, these despots and their current successors would be nowhere.’
‘Sticks and stones…says the old rhyme. Don’t believe a word of it.’ &&&8211; Jonathon Green, Lexicographer
'At a time when so many leaders around the world are stoking fear and hate, Guy Doza's brilliant The Language of Evil is the handbook that humanity needs right now &&&8211; not simply to understand the dangerous rhetoric of demagogues, but how to resist it.' &&&8211; Terry Szuplat, former foreign policy speechwriter for President Barack Obama
In this captivating history of language and power, speechwriter Guy Doza sets out how dictators have seized and maintained control of states through their mastery of oratory.
He shows how, despite their fearsome reputation, strongmen such as Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were surprisingly subtle and skillful in their speeches. Less notorious female tyrants (have you heard of Ranavalona I, the ‘Mad Queen of Madagascar’ who killed half of her subjects, or Chairman Mao’s murderous wife Jiang Qing?) were differently but equally manipulative.
As well as revealing the wordplay of each of 18 despots, Doza analyses the rhetorical techniques they shared. How Attila the Hun and Napoleon Bonaparte showered flattery on their troops and deliberately aggrandised their enemies. And how two violent 20th Century leaders, Zaire’s President Mobuto and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, portrayed themselves as the father of their respective nations to nurture their ethos.
For, irrespective of time, geography and language, dictators and their allies consistently reuse the same methods of persuasion. In a ‘post-truth’ age where simplified messages overpower sophisticated ones, The Language of Evil equips readers to spot the same tricks and techniques being used today by tomorrow’s would-be dictators.
Reviews
'The handbook that humanity needs right now &&&8211; not simply to understand the dangerous rhetoric of demagogues, but how to resist it.' &&&8211; Terry Szuplat, former policy speechwriter for President Barack Obama and author of Say It Well.
‘Whatever happens in the street, the populist mobs have to be fired up first. That’s where words come in. Guy Doza’s Language of Evil is a fascinating analysis of the speechifying that empowers tyranny through the malign careers of eighteen dictators, from Julius Caesar to Saddam Hussein.
'Gun, clubs, camps and torture chambers come next, but without words to set things going, these despots and their current successors would be nowhere.’
‘Sticks and stones…says the old rhyme. Don’t believe a word of it.’ &&&8211; Jonathon Green, Lexicographer
'At a time when so many leaders around the world are stoking fear and hate, Guy Doza's brilliant The Language of Evil is the handbook that humanity needs right now &&&8211; not simply to understand the dangerous rhetoric of demagogues, but how to resist it.' &&&8211; Terry Szuplat, former foreign policy speechwriter for President Barack Obama
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Julius Caesar
Attila the Hun
Wu Zetian
Chinggis Khan
Queens of Europe
Isabella of Castile
Queen Mary I
Queen Elizabeth I
Napoleon
Ranavalona I
Benito Mussolini
Joseph Goebbels
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Eva Per&&&243;n
Jiang Qing
Mobutu
Indira Gandhi
Saddam Hussein
Conclusion
Glossary of Terms
Index
Julius Caesar
Attila the Hun
Wu Zetian
Chinggis Khan
Queens of Europe
Isabella of Castile
Queen Mary I
Queen Elizabeth I
Napoleon
Ranavalona I
Benito Mussolini
Joseph Goebbels
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Eva Per&&&243;n
Jiang Qing
Mobutu
Indira Gandhi
Saddam Hussein
Conclusion
Glossary of Terms
Index