num_pages: 164
description: Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Elect of God, Lion of Judah, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, reigned from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974. While the fighting still raged, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland's leading foreign correspondent, traveled to Ethiopia to seek out and interview Selassie's servants and closest associates on how the Emperor had ruled and why he fell. This "sensitive, powerful. . .history" (The New York Review of Books) is Kapuscinski's rendition of their accounts—humorous, frightening, sad, grotesque—of a man living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered between hunger and starvation.
language: English
title: The Emperor: Downfall of An Autocrat
titlecomplete: The Emperor: Downfall of An Autocrat
characters: Hailé Selassié I, Ryszard Kapuściński
genres: Ethiopia, Politics, Biography, Africa, Polish Literature, Travel, Poland, Nonfiction, History, Journalism
ratings_count: 7810
places: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
publisher: Vintage International