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History's 9 Most Insane Rulers
Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity. When nothing stands between a leader's delusional whims and seeing them carried out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible.
This book will look at the lives of the nine most mentally unbalanced figures in history. Some suffered from genetic disorders that led to schizophrenia, such as French King Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass. Others believed themselves to be God’s representatives on earth and wrote religious writings that they guaranteed to the reader would get them into heaven, even if these leaders were barely literate.
Whether it is Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I practicing archery on palace servants or Turkmenistan president-for-life Akhbar Turkmenbashi renaming the days of the week after himself and constructing an 80-foot-tall golden statue that revolves to face the sun, crazed leaders have plagued society for millenia.
There are many different types of insane leaders, and the figures examined in this book fall into two categories:
The first type suffered from mental illness and psychological disorders. This includes such leaders as British King George III, who suffered from the hereditary blood disease porphyria (as did many other European monarchs, who were all related) and battled hallucinations and extreme paranoia; and Ibrahim I, the Ottoman Sultan whose decades-long imprisonment turned him into a sociopath who sent out his advisers to find the fattest woman in the empire for his wife.
The second type suffered from self-inflicted madness by being intoxicated with power. They slid into a condition of megalomania and self-aggrandizement by being surrounded by sycophants who never questioned their decisions. This list is full of 20th century autocrats such as Albanian Head of State Enver Hoxha, who ruined the national currency by making it conform to his superstition with numbers. More famous is Turkmenbashi, who renamed constellations and days of the week after himself and his mother.
While such stories are amusing, this book also contemplates the addictive nature of power and the effects it has on those who cling to it for too long. It explores how leaders can undertake the extraordinarily complicated job of leading a country without their full mental faculties and sometimes manage to be moderately successful. It examines why society tolerates their actions for so long and even attempts to put a facade of normalcy on rulers, despite everyone knowing that they are mentally unstable. The book also explores if insane rulers are a relic of the age of monarchs and will die out in the age of democracy, or if they will continue to plague nations in the twenty-first century.
Finally, as many armchair psychologists question the mental health of Donald Trump and other populist politicians in the United States and Europe, all but diagnosing them with mental illness, this book sets to show that truly insane rulers are categorically different in the ways they endanger their population.
This book will look at the lives of the nine most mentally unbalanced figures in history. Some suffered from genetic disorders that led to schizophrenia, such as French King Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass. Others believed themselves to be God’s representatives on earth and wrote religious writings that they guaranteed to the reader would get them into heaven, even if these leaders were barely literate.
Whether it is Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I practicing archery on palace servants or Turkmenistan president-for-life Akhbar Turkmenbashi renaming the days of the week after himself and constructing an 80-foot-tall golden statue that revolves to face the sun, crazed leaders have plagued society for millenia.
There are many different types of insane leaders, and the figures examined in this book fall into two categories:
The first type suffered from mental illness and psychological disorders. This includes such leaders as British King George III, who suffered from the hereditary blood disease porphyria (as did many other European monarchs, who were all related) and battled hallucinations and extreme paranoia; and Ibrahim I, the Ottoman Sultan whose decades-long imprisonment turned him into a sociopath who sent out his advisers to find the fattest woman in the empire for his wife.
The second type suffered from self-inflicted madness by being intoxicated with power. They slid into a condition of megalomania and self-aggrandizement by being surrounded by sycophants who never questioned their decisions. This list is full of 20th century autocrats such as Albanian Head of State Enver Hoxha, who ruined the national currency by making it conform to his superstition with numbers. More famous is Turkmenbashi, who renamed constellations and days of the week after himself and his mother.
While such stories are amusing, this book also contemplates the addictive nature of power and the effects it has on those who cling to it for too long. It explores how leaders can undertake the extraordinarily complicated job of leading a country without their full mental faculties and sometimes manage to be moderately successful. It examines why society tolerates their actions for so long and even attempts to put a facade of normalcy on rulers, despite everyone knowing that they are mentally unstable. The book also explores if insane rulers are a relic of the age of monarchs and will die out in the age of democracy, or if they will continue to plague nations in the twenty-first century.
Finally, as many armchair psychologists question the mental health of Donald Trump and other populist politicians in the United States and Europe, all but diagnosing them with mental illness, this book sets to show that truly insane rulers are categorically different in the ways they endanger their population.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2020
4 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 22, 2024
3,5 zvaigznes. Grāmatas nosaukums ir kā uzmanību aizķert gribošam rakstam - saturs ir tieši tik interesants, kā tāds nosaukums sola, bet nekas vairāk kā vēsturiska izklaide jau tajā arī nav. Autors it kā mēģina pastāstīt, kas par kaiti varētu būt bijusi šiem valdniekiem, bet ar atrunu, ka īstenībā jau neko nezinām, jo neviens specialists dzīves laikā neizmeklēja un nepublicēja savu atzinumu, un vispār mēs daudz ko lasām no apšaubāmiem avotiem, kas gribēja pasnieg informāciju tādā gaismā, kā sev izdevīgi. Deviņi valdnieki, kas izvēlēti ir Senās Romas imperators Kaligula, Krievijas cars Ivans IV Rurikovičs jeb Ivans Bargais, Osmaņu impērijas sultāns Ibrahims I, Francijas karalis Šarls VI, Lielbritānijas karalis Džordžs III, Bavārijas karalis Ludvigs II, Ugandas prezidents Idi Amins Dada, Turkmenistānas prezidents Saparmurats Nijazovs jeb Turkmenbaši un Ziemeļkorejas līderis Kims Čenirs. Kāpēc tieši šie - godīgi sakot, tā arī nesapratu.
October 30, 2023
"History's 9 Most Insane Rulers" sounds like a clickbait Youtube title and that's a little irritating. With the exception of a few, "insane" would be an incorrect assessment of most of their mental states. Many of these rulers were of sound mind, but were immoral, tyrannical or even just eccentric. Aside from that, the information on each king, dictator or emperor is surprisingly well-researched. With the exception of Caligula and Kim Jong-un the others talked about in this book are not often discussed. It is nice to learn about figures from history I might never have researched on my own like Idi Amin of Uganda or Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan. If you are interested in history but don't know which country/figure to read about next, definitely give it a shot.
The rulers discussed are:
1. Caligula, Rome
2. Charles IV, France
3. George III, England
4. Ivan the Terrible, Russia
5. Ibrahim I, Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
6. Ludwig II, Bavaria (Germany)
7. Idi Amin, Uganda
8. Berdymukhammedov, Turkmenistan
9. Kim Jong-un, N. Korea
The rulers discussed are:
1. Caligula, Rome
2. Charles IV, France
3. George III, England
4. Ivan the Terrible, Russia
5. Ibrahim I, Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
6. Ludwig II, Bavaria (Germany)
7. Idi Amin, Uganda
8. Berdymukhammedov, Turkmenistan
9. Kim Jong-un, N. Korea
May 29, 2020
This was a very enjoyable and quick read. While the book does not go into a lot of detail on each ruler, it does provide the reader a starting place in which to find more information.
March 28, 2022
Some interesting tidbits but overall pretty dry. I will say that “The Mad King Ludwig II” was fascinating though. Another road trip listen with the hubs.
August 2, 2020
A fascinating perspective on how power can lead to some pretty wacky behavior. A lot of the negative comments I have read elsewhere focus on how this is anti-Trump propaganda, when there is very little mention of Trump whatsoever, maybe a couple of paragraphs at most. In fact, the author notes that compared to some of the whack jobs he is going to talk about, Trump is "not even close to being one of the truly mad leaders. The truly mad leaders compete at a completely different level." So conservatives got all worked up about slights that they themselves had invented out of ignorance.
The leaders discussed are:
1. Ivan the Terrible (psychopath)
2. Caligula (psychopath)
3. Charles IV (I don't remember what the conclusion was)
4. Ibrahim I (psychopath, manipulated by others)
5. George III (probably arsenic poisoning from medication)
6. Ludwig II (more eccentric than actually crazy, and probably gay and shamed for it)
7. Idi Amin (psychopath/sadist)
8. Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan (narcissist)
9. Kim Jong-un (narcissist)
The author never discusses Trump after the introduction. Instead, he describes the behavior of the aforementioned leaders, then discusses whether or not they were likely to be considered insane by today's experts. Very well written and engaging.
The leaders discussed are:
1. Ivan the Terrible (psychopath)
2. Caligula (psychopath)
3. Charles IV (I don't remember what the conclusion was)
4. Ibrahim I (psychopath, manipulated by others)
5. George III (probably arsenic poisoning from medication)
6. Ludwig II (more eccentric than actually crazy, and probably gay and shamed for it)
7. Idi Amin (psychopath/sadist)
8. Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan (narcissist)
9. Kim Jong-un (narcissist)
The author never discusses Trump after the introduction. Instead, he describes the behavior of the aforementioned leaders, then discusses whether or not they were likely to be considered insane by today's experts. Very well written and engaging.
June 2, 2021
3.5/5
If I were designing a list of insane rulers. I would have made different decisions, but I found this list quite entertaining.
If I were designing a list of insane rulers. I would have made different decisions, but I found this list quite entertaining.
March 31, 2022
Good: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book is a little hard to rate, because there are multiple sections. Some were written better than others. The introduction should have warned me. It went off on a tangent only to disclaim said tangent, so there was really no reason to go off on the first place.
I prefer biographies written in in chronological order. Some of these sections were, some of them weren’t.
Also, I wasn’t expecting actual biographies. 😆 I was expecting it to delve more in to the actual madness of these rulers, but they really were more like brief biographies that just touched on madness.
Clean: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There is some mention of death and gore, but that’s too be expected. I don’t think there was any language.
Fun: ⭐️⭐️ I kind of already mentioned my feelings on the book. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it was still fairly informative.
I prefer biographies written in in chronological order. Some of these sections were, some of them weren’t.
Also, I wasn’t expecting actual biographies. 😆 I was expecting it to delve more in to the actual madness of these rulers, but they really were more like brief biographies that just touched on madness.
Clean: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There is some mention of death and gore, but that’s too be expected. I don’t think there was any language.
Fun: ⭐️⭐️ I kind of already mentioned my feelings on the book. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it was still fairly informative.
August 24, 2020
all reviews in one place:
night mode reading ;
skaitom nakties rezimu
My Opinion: The first two or three chapters were pretty interesting, and that’s what gets the points. Later on as we proceed into more and more recent times there comes a need to google facts. Or rather, there’s these moments where I secretly wondered on whether author had access to internet, or maybe there was a non-disclosure agreement of some sort, for author, seemingly accidentally, blackens the name of poor people that are held hostage by their insane leaders.
It’s an okay book that I can give a 4 out of 5 for the sake of writing consistency. But please do remember, search engines are your friends.
night mode reading ;
skaitom nakties rezimu
My Opinion: The first two or three chapters were pretty interesting, and that’s what gets the points. Later on as we proceed into more and more recent times there comes a need to google facts. Or rather, there’s these moments where I secretly wondered on whether author had access to internet, or maybe there was a non-disclosure agreement of some sort, for author, seemingly accidentally, blackens the name of poor people that are held hostage by their insane leaders.
It’s an okay book that I can give a 4 out of 5 for the sake of writing consistency. But please do remember, search engines are your friends.
May 7, 2021
I felt the rulers picked for this book have a large gap in how they were insane. I also think picking just nine was a mistake since I wondered what the criteria was for picking those particular nine. A couple of them made sense since they were designated as famously mad- however some of the nine was just choosing.
The history and descriptions of each ruler and their madness were also too brief a summery. This book would have been much more helpful if it had been longer.
The history and descriptions of each ruler and their madness were also too brief a summery. This book would have been much more helpful if it had been longer.
January 18, 2022
I quite enjoyed the book. Are their other insane rulers out there? Absolutely, but this book gave a little glimpse into some that may be less discussed in history class (at least in the US). The book left me wanting to dig deeper and honestly, I think that may have been the goal. A book more accessible to us that normally don't read history books but are still interested.
October 18, 2020
Good...but could have been much better.
January 8, 2021
The book felt kind of light/cursory, but I did pick up some new things about a couple historical figures I knew nothing about. Wasn’t a terrible book, but certainly isn’t a must read.
July 4, 2021
Wasn't a huge fan of the writing but it was a quick read.
May 18, 2024
Rounding up. Really a 2.5. Informative, but too conclusory without support. Insane is the wrong sobriquet for this book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews