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Revolutionary Monsters: Five Men Who Turned Liberation into Tyranny
Lenin. Mao. Castro. Mugabe. Khomeini.
All sparked movements in the name of liberating their people from their oppressors—capitalists, foreign imperialists, or dictators in their own country. These revolutionaries rallied the masses in the name of freedom, only to become more tyrannical than those they replaced.
Much has been written about the anatomy of revolution from Edmund Burke to Crane Brinton Crane, Franz Fanon, and contemporary theorists of revolution found in the modern academy. Yet what is missing is a dissection of the revolutionary minds that destroyed the old for the creation of a more harmful new.
Revolutionary Monsters presents a collective biography of five modern day revolutionaries who came into power calling for the liberation of the people only to end up killing millions of people in the name of Lenin (Russia), Mao (China), Castro (Cuba), Mugabe (Zimbabwe), and Khomeini (Iran). Revolutionary Monsters explores basic questions about the revolutionary personality, and examines how these revolutionaries came to envision themselves as prophets of a new age.
All sparked movements in the name of liberating their people from their oppressors—capitalists, foreign imperialists, or dictators in their own country. These revolutionaries rallied the masses in the name of freedom, only to become more tyrannical than those they replaced.
Much has been written about the anatomy of revolution from Edmund Burke to Crane Brinton Crane, Franz Fanon, and contemporary theorists of revolution found in the modern academy. Yet what is missing is a dissection of the revolutionary minds that destroyed the old for the creation of a more harmful new.
Revolutionary Monsters presents a collective biography of five modern day revolutionaries who came into power calling for the liberation of the people only to end up killing millions of people in the name of Lenin (Russia), Mao (China), Castro (Cuba), Mugabe (Zimbabwe), and Khomeini (Iran). Revolutionary Monsters explores basic questions about the revolutionary personality, and examines how these revolutionaries came to envision themselves as prophets of a new age.
206 pages, Hardcover
Published October 5, 2021
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110 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 6, 2022
Very easy to understand. Very clear presentation of facts without any philosophical ramblings. I felt I learned a lot of history and none of it boring. This is great for adults but also a great recommendation for, say, a grade 9 student.
March 3, 2023
Khomeini’s vision was grander: a final apocalypse with the death of all infidels. His vision was the creation of a heaven on earth. For many in Iran today, the regime is hell on earth😶
October 6, 2021
Great read! Once I started I couldn’t put it down. Very well written and informative. As a recent college graduate, it was a historical perspective on these dictators which I never got from my studies. With the times we are living in now, I highly recommend Revolutionary Monsters!
March 21, 2022
As has often been noted, those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. There are many important historical lessons to be learned and reminded of in this relatively short and easy to read but nonetheless well researched, engrossing book. It does not take long to read "Revolutionary Monsters," and it is well worth your time to do so.
October 19, 2023
Chapter 1: Lenin
9/10
The intro is kinda banal. The author is neutral on this topic and fully apolitical so far. He is basically just saying "revolutionaries promising a utopia are often wolves in sheeps' clothing". Of course impossible to disagree with, but surely the author must have learned something deeper and more engaging from spending years or so writing this book? His moral teachings are so predictable and obvious that him spelling it out feels like he's prephasing the book to be readable for high schoolers. Which is actually a great idea, but then why is the cover so dull and colorless if this is for teens?
I'm no Lenin expert. I have watched some videos and documentaries on this side of history, but the chapter gave me more info than I knew already so I can't really judge it bases on what he may have missed here. It's just a very excellent and short overview of Lenin's life full of details on every page. It's like listening to an engaging encyclopedia article with a ton of details and stories. I also appreciate how he skipped Stalin and Hitler to focus on less known names for the West as I think it would be a waste to start with the 2 main examples we already know.
Chapter 2: Mao
9/10
Another communist. Mao follows in the footsteps of Lenin using his ideas and creating very few new ideas himself. Mao is not a reader or writer unlike Lenin who got supported by his mom so that he could become a politician. Mao was extremely arrogant too though and his communist programs to make China into a utopia doomed millions. Millions starved, China didn't progress technologically, and he made students rebel against teachers and the old ways as Mao himself was bad at the memorization school stuff in China. So students were demolishing old artifacts, buildings, graves of Chinese legends. Just smashing everything and even beating up teachers. Until Mao felt he lost control of them and then started sending students, teachers, artists, performers, intellectuals, and many more smart groups to the farms to reeducate them. He told his fellow politicians that he wanted to keep the population stupid. The West initially felt he was improving things just like they did with all the other leaders here.
Meanwhile Mao also had a bloodthirsty steak to him from when he was fighting the old regime He got so much money from Soviet that the communist leaders decided to invite him back into the fold and his army helped defeat the old regime. Mao then wanted to make the world communist. Even proposing to drop nuclear bombs everywhere as he could then turn the remaining people into communists so that the world would still be better off overall according to him. As he started skirmishes with Soviet Nixon saw the potential in befriending China. He said he would recognize China instead of Taiwan and let China join UN.
Good chapter, but very, very short. I really wanted to read more even though Mao is someone I already know much about. The author always explores new stories and new ideas in his chapters.
Chapter 3: Castro
10/10
Castro was born into a rich family. He struggled in school, but had a great memory and could just study up fast prior to exams. He was also athletic and tall and loved making himself the center of attention. He was kicked out of schools and the socialists didn't like him either. He promises a democracy so his civil war campaign was supported by even right-wingers, social democrats, and even everyone in CIA supported him. The current leader was creating a more advanced Cuba, but a promise of even greater wealth and democracy was too irresistible for the young people in Cuba. But once Castro took power he used the TV to proclaim the revolution the main goal and started imprisoning and executing his opponents, even communists. Che, who was extremely pro revolution, could not be executed outright in the name of revolution. Instead Castro forced him to lead communist wars all over the world without giving him arms to survive. Killing him without making it obvious. Castro initially got a lot of support because he promised to let everyone keep their land and also give away parts in factories and farms to the workers. Instead he let the state take over everything making Cuba dirt poor. Only USSR was barely consisting it, but USSR tech was terrible and often unusable. After he died his brother, who created the secret police force in Cuba, took power.
It does seem like young people loved and adored Castro even after he became a totalitarian dictator. But the author says that today the young tattooed people are not really seeing themselves in these old leaders. So it's curious how the communist regime will remain in power as their key support base in young far-left university students and teachers are seemingly not really interested in this old stale revolution and rather seek new energy and more modern revolution I assume. Plus Raul Castro is very old by now and what then? Will the young far-left population group who supported Castro in the civil war want a new old leader who will rule them for 50 years?
Honestly very, very interesting chapter. I was glued to it.
Chapter 4:
9/10
Mugabe. Everything you like to know and more. Again very short, but it feels tight. You get crucial info in every line of text. Expert level writing. Mugabe was a huge far-left racist against White people and also hated the imperialist West. He proclaimed even before the civil war that he wanted a Black dictatorship and kick or kill off White people. Yet even after he grabbed power people believed in his non-fascist left-wing promises. Especially the liberal West who wanted the White people to leave Africa to itself - which in this case was a giant disaster. Mugabe had an affair with his young secretary and after getting many children with her his wife died and he married her. When he himself was dying he pushed his wife into the dictator role to take over from him. But his main military man, who himself is a psychopath, didn't accept this and grabbed power himself. So right before Mugabe died he lost power and his spoiled wife never got to be the dictator.
I wonder how eager White people will be to come back to the country and kickstart the farming that was demolished by letting clueless Black farmers take over. Instead of being the bread basket of Africa the country started to import food. But White people likely won't fully return until the Mugabe rule is gone. And even then they still recall how their farms got stolen.
Chapter 5: The Ayatollah Imam Khomeini
9/10
Another slam dunk. Great chapter on Iran and how it became an anti-Semitic regime. Khomeini was pushed into power by the people who wanted a more religious and left-leaning leader instead of the Britain and US supported weak leader. But he was writing anti-Jewish creeds quite openly and even proclaiming that a wise all-knowing man should rule Iran as a dictator. His plans were clear and still the young people, yet again, started protests and attacks to get him into power. And with the Western system of semi-democracy in Iran it's easy for these violent people to get into power by force. Today the young people, just like in Cuba, are not seeing eye to eye with the old dictator who replaced Khomeini and still is acting out the anti-Semitic creeds. They put these leaders into power, but these university students will never stop their revolution and will attack their own leaders too.
This chapter was a new topic for me so I didn't quite get it as much as prior chapters, but I'm extremely eager to learn about how HAMAS and Hezbollah got started with 1 man taking power and propping up Gaza and the West Bank to kill civilians in Israel. This is actually info I needed to understand the Israel conflict. And I will need to read more on this to understand these Nazi ideas and why the West initially supported a man who clearly is at the level of Hitler in many ways.
Review of full book
What a work of art. Just a blast to listen to this audiobook. Great fun from start to finish despite this being a serious topic that could easily have been dull and macabre. The author makes sure every single point he makes is important and illuminating and his simple style with no bias or personal opinions taking over is perfect as you get pure history line for line. At the end he does explain what the book is telling us. That young largely left-leaning revolutionary minded and educated people often fight to get a utopia promising madman into power. They seem a great and strong narcissistic leader who is promising them MORE even when they live in a semi-democracy that is economically strong. And as a rule this ends badly with the narcissist doing what he told everyone he would do: proclaim himself a dictator and kill all his enemies especially the left-leaning students who showed that they have the will and power to support new upcoming rulers.
The idea is pretty simple and message not that new. But I do understand the world much better now. And the message being simple actually makes sure no chapter is dragged down by some overall bias or the author budding in with "see this small story supports my biased worldview". It's a pretty genius way to write a history book. The overall connections are so loose that he never needs to be biased to tell the overall story. I was putting this off for some time as the topic is quite dark and it's stuff I know about to some degree, but that was a mistake. The book makes a dark topic informative and clear.
Highly recommended book. We will see if this will turn out to be my book of the year. The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal is at this level too and amazing too. And I will make sure to read maybe 10 more books this year. But this will be a book I will gladly recommend.
9/10
The intro is kinda banal. The author is neutral on this topic and fully apolitical so far. He is basically just saying "revolutionaries promising a utopia are often wolves in sheeps' clothing". Of course impossible to disagree with, but surely the author must have learned something deeper and more engaging from spending years or so writing this book? His moral teachings are so predictable and obvious that him spelling it out feels like he's prephasing the book to be readable for high schoolers. Which is actually a great idea, but then why is the cover so dull and colorless if this is for teens?
I'm no Lenin expert. I have watched some videos and documentaries on this side of history, but the chapter gave me more info than I knew already so I can't really judge it bases on what he may have missed here. It's just a very excellent and short overview of Lenin's life full of details on every page. It's like listening to an engaging encyclopedia article with a ton of details and stories. I also appreciate how he skipped Stalin and Hitler to focus on less known names for the West as I think it would be a waste to start with the 2 main examples we already know.
Chapter 2: Mao
9/10
Another communist. Mao follows in the footsteps of Lenin using his ideas and creating very few new ideas himself. Mao is not a reader or writer unlike Lenin who got supported by his mom so that he could become a politician. Mao was extremely arrogant too though and his communist programs to make China into a utopia doomed millions. Millions starved, China didn't progress technologically, and he made students rebel against teachers and the old ways as Mao himself was bad at the memorization school stuff in China. So students were demolishing old artifacts, buildings, graves of Chinese legends. Just smashing everything and even beating up teachers. Until Mao felt he lost control of them and then started sending students, teachers, artists, performers, intellectuals, and many more smart groups to the farms to reeducate them. He told his fellow politicians that he wanted to keep the population stupid. The West initially felt he was improving things just like they did with all the other leaders here.
Meanwhile Mao also had a bloodthirsty steak to him from when he was fighting the old regime He got so much money from Soviet that the communist leaders decided to invite him back into the fold and his army helped defeat the old regime. Mao then wanted to make the world communist. Even proposing to drop nuclear bombs everywhere as he could then turn the remaining people into communists so that the world would still be better off overall according to him. As he started skirmishes with Soviet Nixon saw the potential in befriending China. He said he would recognize China instead of Taiwan and let China join UN.
Good chapter, but very, very short. I really wanted to read more even though Mao is someone I already know much about. The author always explores new stories and new ideas in his chapters.
Chapter 3: Castro
10/10
Castro was born into a rich family. He struggled in school, but had a great memory and could just study up fast prior to exams. He was also athletic and tall and loved making himself the center of attention. He was kicked out of schools and the socialists didn't like him either. He promises a democracy so his civil war campaign was supported by even right-wingers, social democrats, and even everyone in CIA supported him. The current leader was creating a more advanced Cuba, but a promise of even greater wealth and democracy was too irresistible for the young people in Cuba. But once Castro took power he used the TV to proclaim the revolution the main goal and started imprisoning and executing his opponents, even communists. Che, who was extremely pro revolution, could not be executed outright in the name of revolution. Instead Castro forced him to lead communist wars all over the world without giving him arms to survive. Killing him without making it obvious. Castro initially got a lot of support because he promised to let everyone keep their land and also give away parts in factories and farms to the workers. Instead he let the state take over everything making Cuba dirt poor. Only USSR was barely consisting it, but USSR tech was terrible and often unusable. After he died his brother, who created the secret police force in Cuba, took power.
It does seem like young people loved and adored Castro even after he became a totalitarian dictator. But the author says that today the young tattooed people are not really seeing themselves in these old leaders. So it's curious how the communist regime will remain in power as their key support base in young far-left university students and teachers are seemingly not really interested in this old stale revolution and rather seek new energy and more modern revolution I assume. Plus Raul Castro is very old by now and what then? Will the young far-left population group who supported Castro in the civil war want a new old leader who will rule them for 50 years?
Honestly very, very interesting chapter. I was glued to it.
Chapter 4:
9/10
Mugabe. Everything you like to know and more. Again very short, but it feels tight. You get crucial info in every line of text. Expert level writing. Mugabe was a huge far-left racist against White people and also hated the imperialist West. He proclaimed even before the civil war that he wanted a Black dictatorship and kick or kill off White people. Yet even after he grabbed power people believed in his non-fascist left-wing promises. Especially the liberal West who wanted the White people to leave Africa to itself - which in this case was a giant disaster. Mugabe had an affair with his young secretary and after getting many children with her his wife died and he married her. When he himself was dying he pushed his wife into the dictator role to take over from him. But his main military man, who himself is a psychopath, didn't accept this and grabbed power himself. So right before Mugabe died he lost power and his spoiled wife never got to be the dictator.
I wonder how eager White people will be to come back to the country and kickstart the farming that was demolished by letting clueless Black farmers take over. Instead of being the bread basket of Africa the country started to import food. But White people likely won't fully return until the Mugabe rule is gone. And even then they still recall how their farms got stolen.
Chapter 5: The Ayatollah Imam Khomeini
9/10
Another slam dunk. Great chapter on Iran and how it became an anti-Semitic regime. Khomeini was pushed into power by the people who wanted a more religious and left-leaning leader instead of the Britain and US supported weak leader. But he was writing anti-Jewish creeds quite openly and even proclaiming that a wise all-knowing man should rule Iran as a dictator. His plans were clear and still the young people, yet again, started protests and attacks to get him into power. And with the Western system of semi-democracy in Iran it's easy for these violent people to get into power by force. Today the young people, just like in Cuba, are not seeing eye to eye with the old dictator who replaced Khomeini and still is acting out the anti-Semitic creeds. They put these leaders into power, but these university students will never stop their revolution and will attack their own leaders too.
This chapter was a new topic for me so I didn't quite get it as much as prior chapters, but I'm extremely eager to learn about how HAMAS and Hezbollah got started with 1 man taking power and propping up Gaza and the West Bank to kill civilians in Israel. This is actually info I needed to understand the Israel conflict. And I will need to read more on this to understand these Nazi ideas and why the West initially supported a man who clearly is at the level of Hitler in many ways.
Review of full book
What a work of art. Just a blast to listen to this audiobook. Great fun from start to finish despite this being a serious topic that could easily have been dull and macabre. The author makes sure every single point he makes is important and illuminating and his simple style with no bias or personal opinions taking over is perfect as you get pure history line for line. At the end he does explain what the book is telling us. That young largely left-leaning revolutionary minded and educated people often fight to get a utopia promising madman into power. They seem a great and strong narcissistic leader who is promising them MORE even when they live in a semi-democracy that is economically strong. And as a rule this ends badly with the narcissist doing what he told everyone he would do: proclaim himself a dictator and kill all his enemies especially the left-leaning students who showed that they have the will and power to support new upcoming rulers.
The idea is pretty simple and message not that new. But I do understand the world much better now. And the message being simple actually makes sure no chapter is dragged down by some overall bias or the author budding in with "see this small story supports my biased worldview". It's a pretty genius way to write a history book. The overall connections are so loose that he never needs to be biased to tell the overall story. I was putting this off for some time as the topic is quite dark and it's stuff I know about to some degree, but that was a mistake. The book makes a dark topic informative and clear.
Highly recommended book. We will see if this will turn out to be my book of the year. The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal is at this level too and amazing too. And I will make sure to read maybe 10 more books this year. But this will be a book I will gladly recommend.
November 30, 2021
Damn! Youth is wasted on the young. Add a large segment of society disillusioned with their inept or corrupt leaders, an unrealistic social ideology from students and intellectuals that cannot comprehend human nature.... and throw in ignorance of economics and history from those ready for change ... you get the social revolutions manifested in France (1789 and 1871), Europe (1848), Russia (1917), Germany and Hungary (1919), China (1949), Cuba (1959), Iran (1979), Nicaragua (1979), Rhodesia-Zimbabwe (1980), Venezuela (1999), and many, many other nations. What starts off as a War of Liberation from the Oppressors promising freedom and a republic beholden to democratic ideals.... turns into a bloody, far-more oppressive dictatorship that absolutely will not tolerate dissent or disloyalty to the nation's new savior. Those who do not play ball are not only part of the problem - but the reason for the many failures the new leader must deal with. Therefore - we must re-educate or eliminate those who are ruining things for everyone.
If you've read George Orwell's "Animal Farm" - you'll know what I'm talking about... and more importantly - you'll appreciate Donald Critchlow's book "Revolutionary Monsters". This book should be required reading for all students and history buffs. It's also good for those who don't quite understand economics but are intrigued by annoying politicians who have never worked a private-sector job a day in their life - but promise good paying jobs while sticking it to the very companies that do the hiring.
If you've read George Orwell's "Animal Farm" - you'll know what I'm talking about... and more importantly - you'll appreciate Donald Critchlow's book "Revolutionary Monsters". This book should be required reading for all students and history buffs. It's also good for those who don't quite understand economics but are intrigued by annoying politicians who have never worked a private-sector job a day in their life - but promise good paying jobs while sticking it to the very companies that do the hiring.
January 30, 2022
How about a second part showing West backed dictators
February 25, 2025
Not very good in my opinion. I enjoyed learning some aspects of the subject’s backgrounds, but it was also quite short. Enough to get the author’s loathing across, not enough to feel like we got to the point of deep or meaningful analysis. There was also the odd jab at “youths these days” sprinkled throughout the book. Just not that good.
June 3, 2022
Bias.
The introduction is charged with inaccuracy and prejudgement.
After reading All the Shah’s man, black waves, Pity the Nation…
It was difficult to digest such a mono-polar view of history.
The introduction is charged with inaccuracy and prejudgement.
After reading All the Shah’s man, black waves, Pity the Nation…
It was difficult to digest such a mono-polar view of history.
October 2, 2023
September 2023
hoopla
Audiobook
Amazing
Finished in one day
hoopla
Audiobook
Amazing
Finished in one day
November 7, 2021
So why can we not learn from the past?
January 10, 2022
A good very introductory look into infamous tyrants and the connections in their ideology.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews