Tyrants: a history of power, injustice, and terror

Cover; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Strange Career of Tyranny; The Three Faces of Tyranny; The Ancient and Modern Understandings of Tyranny; Tyrants in Waiting: Terrorism and the Righteous Anger of Young Men; The Beautification of Violence; The Challenge of Tyranny in Today's World; Part One The Rage of Achilles: From Homeric Heroes to Lord and God of the World; Homeric Kings and Heroes; Kings of the World: Universal Monarchy; Tyranny or Republic? The Emergence of the West; The Greatest Republic.

The forces of freedom are challenged everywhere by a newly energized spirit of tyranny, whether it is Jihadist terrorism, Putin's imperialism, or the ambitions of China's dictatorship, writes Waller R. Newell in this engaging exposé of a thousand dangers. We will see why tyranny is a permanent threat by following its strange career from Homeric Bronze Age warriors, through the empires of Alexander the Great and Rome, to the medieval struggle between the City of God and the City of Man, leading to the state-building despots of the Modern Age including the Tudors and 'enlightened despots' such as Peter the Great. The book explores the psychology of tyranny from Nero to Gaddafi, and how it changes with the Jacobin Terror into millenarian revolution. Stimulating and enlightening, Tyrants: A History of Power, Injustice, and Terror will appeal to anyone interested in the danger posed by tyranny and terror in today's world