From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chavez: Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship

by Paul Hollander

During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, political dictators were not only popular in their own countries, but were also admired by numerous highly educated and idealistic Western intellectuals. The objects of this political hero-worship included Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro and more recently Hugo Chavez, among others. This book seeks to understand the sources of these misjudgements and misperceptions, the specific appeals of particular dictators, and the part played by their charisma, or pseudo-charisma. It sheds new light not only on the political disposition of numerous Western intellectuals - such as Martin Heidegger, Eric Hobsbawm, Norman Mailer, Ezra Pound, Susan Sontag and George Bernard Shaw - but also on the personality of those political leaders who encouraged, and in some instances helped to design, the cult surrounding their rise to dictatorship.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

ebook

Published January 11, 2017

About the author

American political sociologist, communist-studies scholar, and non-fiction author. He is known for his criticisms of communism and left-wing politics in general. Born in 1932 in Hungary, he fled to the West after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was bloodily put down by Soviet forces.
Hollander earned a Ph.D in Sociology from Princeton University, 1963 and a B.A. from the London School of Economics, 1959. He was Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Center Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He was a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Reviews

[Eduardo Garcia-Gaspar]

¿Cómo es que buena parte de los intelectuales cometen errores espectaculares de juicio político? Este es el tema de la obra, la atracción sorpresiva de los intelectuales hacia dictadores y regímenes opresivos; quien debía ser una persona razonable, con criterios objetivos y un crítico social, pierde todo eso y se convierte en un admirador que vitorea a quien debe ser reprobado.
Con una introducción que presenta al curioso fenómeno y aclara el significado de «intelectual», y un último capítulo que recapitula los hallazgos y presenta algunas especulaciones, los capítulos intermedios están dedicados a la presentación de un régimen dictatorial o totalitario y su cabeza acompañado de los elogios que los intelectuales le brindaron. Así pasan por las páginas Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, hasta llegar a figuras menores de mayor actualidad.
Cada uno de esos capítulos está lleno de evidencias que prueban esa inexplicable tracción de los intelectuales: cientos de citas y referencias que hacen que la lectura sea un tanto tediosa, pero informativa.
Esta atracción del intelectual al dictador y regímenes despóticos, aclara el autor, no afecta a todos los intelectuales. El número de afectados no es posible de determinar, pero sí puede decirse que es importante y que ellos han influido significativamente en la opinión pública.
Un libro recomendable para quien sea que tenga curiosidad acerca de ese llamativo del intelectual que suspende su actividad cerebral cuando está frente a un dictador.

[Ronald J.]

Paul Hollander is a scholar who has studied, in-depth, intellectuals and other celebrities who have been duped by Nazism, Communism and other forms of tyranny and tyrants. His book, Political Pilgrims is excellent, one of my all-time favorites. This book expands on that one, to include some lesser known tyrants, such as Saddam Hussein, and the Kims in North Korea, etc. An excellent look at why we should all be skeptical of so-called intellectuals and their political posturing. Most of the time, they have been nothing more than useful idiots.

[Riet]

In dit boek laat de schrijver zien hoe door de eeuwen heen, maar vooral de laatste 150 jaar, intellectuelen zich hebben laten ge(mis)bruiken door verschillende dictators. Dat gaat vanaf Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot en dan nog een gevarieerd gezelschap iets modernere dictators. Inderdaad onvoorstelbaar hoe op het eerste gezicht toch zeer intelligente mensen zich voor het karretje van deze lui lieten spannen. En zeer gewillig en vaak op eigen initiatief. De schrijver is zelf afkomstig uit Hongarije en woont al jaren in de VS. Misschien begrijpelijk in zijn positie, maar ik mis een beetje een kritisch geluid t.o.v. het Westen. Ondanks het onderwerp een zeer leesbaar boek.

[Bri Ayala]

A well researched book with a lacking thesis and a few morally questionable statements.
Three stars for the amount of information packed into this book and for how much I learned.