num_pages: 400
description: A mesmerizing study of books by despots great and small from the familiar to the largely unknown.The Washington PostA harrowing 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 worseSince 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 genreStalin Mussolini and Khomeini among themproduced 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 centurys 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.
language: English
title: The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy
publisher: Henry Holt and Co.