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Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, and Kim
Should we humanize the world's most inhumane leaders?
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.
Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world. The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.
Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world. The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.
454 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 22, 2025
I didn't read all of it but I did read everything about Hitler.
March 25, 2025
A fascinating dive into the youths of six infamous dictators of the twentieth century. I have taken classes with Dr. Gauthier, and this book is a clear example of the energy and nuanced thinking that he brings to the study of modern history. Instead of analyzing historical events, Gauthier looks into the lives of these individuals and challenges readers to recognize the humanity that can be found within some of history’s most vile and hateful people. In the introduction, Gauthier explains that this book is intended to offset the idea that these men were solely inhumane monsters, because refusing to recognize humanity within these dictators can feed the cult of personality that they built and enforced within their lifetimes.
Throughout this book, Gauthier contextualizes the early lives of these figureheads of violence, weaving together their stories and leaving room for the readers to make connections between the biographies. The prose is very accessible, and the details surrounding these dictators’ family lives, education, and introduction to politics are incredibly well-researched.
Throughout this book, Gauthier contextualizes the early lives of these figureheads of violence, weaving together their stories and leaving room for the readers to make connections between the biographies. The prose is very accessible, and the details surrounding these dictators’ family lives, education, and introduction to politics are incredibly well-researched.
April 26, 2026
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Should we humanize the world's most inhumane leaders?
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.
Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world.
The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I finally admitted to myself, as I was about to embark on the chapter where Lenin's brother is executed by the tsar's regime, that I do not care. These men were not monsters, but they were bloody-handed, bloody-minded murdering bastards, so knowing they were once belovèd sons/brothers/husbands did nothing to make me loathe them less.
The author's written a darn good book, carefully sourced and cited, that tried to do something to me I did not want done. YMMV
Tortoise Books only wants $9.99 for the ebook! Go get one!
The Publisher Says: Should we humanize the world's most inhumane leaders?
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.
Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world.
The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I finally admitted to myself, as I was about to embark on the chapter where Lenin's brother is executed by the tsar's regime, that I do not care. These men were not monsters, but they were bloody-handed, bloody-minded murdering bastards, so knowing they were once belovèd sons/brothers/husbands did nothing to make me loathe them less.
The author's written a darn good book, carefully sourced and cited, that tried to do something to me I did not want done. YMMV
Tortoise Books only wants $9.99 for the ebook! Go get one!
December 30, 2021
https://www.deviantquill.com/post/bef...
From a historical point of view, this book is thoroughly researched and overall well-presented to the history-loving public. The information runs deep into emotions and intimate moments of the lives of some of the men that have shaped our world through their acts of cruelty. Even details that might seem insignificant, such as their favorite food, restaurants they enjoyed, or beloved animals helps the reader see things through the eyes of someone that was not despicable at that time. Everything is accompanied by rich biographical references and photos of the six dictators, as well as photos of their loved ones and other people that had influenced their lives.
However, there's one thing that I found distracting while reading Mr. Gauthier's book. I didn't particularly enjoy how the individual stories are laid out. I see what he tried to do, but I would have liked it a lot more if he focused on one dictator from his childhood to the end of his life instead of starting in the middle of their life, continue with another dictator, then after reading a small part about all six of them in turn, it goes to the childhood of the first. Personally, I find that pointless and distracting, but I do appreciate the details of everything presented and the investigation into the minds of these notorious men.
Review copy provided by Ingram Publisher Services @ Edelweiss+
From a historical point of view, this book is thoroughly researched and overall well-presented to the history-loving public. The information runs deep into emotions and intimate moments of the lives of some of the men that have shaped our world through their acts of cruelty. Even details that might seem insignificant, such as their favorite food, restaurants they enjoyed, or beloved animals helps the reader see things through the eyes of someone that was not despicable at that time. Everything is accompanied by rich biographical references and photos of the six dictators, as well as photos of their loved ones and other people that had influenced their lives.
However, there's one thing that I found distracting while reading Mr. Gauthier's book. I didn't particularly enjoy how the individual stories are laid out. I see what he tried to do, but I would have liked it a lot more if he focused on one dictator from his childhood to the end of his life instead of starting in the middle of their life, continue with another dictator, then after reading a small part about all six of them in turn, it goes to the childhood of the first. Personally, I find that pointless and distracting, but I do appreciate the details of everything presented and the investigation into the minds of these notorious men.
Review copy provided by Ingram Publisher Services @ Edelweiss+
April 19, 2023
A truly interesting and intriguing dive into the lives of six of the world's most heinous dictators. The author dives into their respective childhood and adolescent years not to "excuse" what they did (due to traumatic experiences, etc.) but rather to humanize them in an effort to make us aware that any one of us could become what we hate. It is simply a series of decisions. In fact, several of the dictators came from healthy family backgrounds, or at least mothers who were devoted to their welfare and education. I liked the way that the book was organized - Part One begins with the end years of each dictator, including how they met their ends. Then Parts Two and Three go on to explore early childhood years and what decisions were made/beliefs were formed in adolescence that ultimately resulted in the men we now know for their terrifying leadership. I really appreciated all the primary sources that Brandon referenced for this work; you can tell that he really put a lot of time and energy into his research and used the best sources possible to give us the holistic portrait he painted through this book.
June 2, 2022
“The path to revolution began in the library” (and with doting moms and passionate teachers), writes Brandon K. Gauthier in BEFORE EVIL: YOUNG LENIN, HITLER, STALIN, MUSSOLINI, MAO, AND KIM, a relatively short but rigorously researched book. Historian Gauthier deftly implicates us in the lives of these six evil dictators. They come across as living, breathing characters. At times I was forced to empathize with them in a way that made me uncomfortable, and then reflect. Gauthier is an adroit narrator, and a crisp writer, skills that make the book more effective at provoking us into thought. Perhaps in the book’s final chapter, Gauthier should not have tried to lay his conclusions out so clearly. I sensed that he was afraid the book might be misinterpreted. Enhancing my understanding and appreciation of the book, I was able to sit down and talk to him. Here’s the video of our chat: https://youtu.be/9hn1pZX9wik
September 14, 2023
This book offers and comprehensive and notorious description about these dictators that actually is not mentioned in the regular academy. After reading the book I can conclude that most of these dictators were subjugated by abusive fathers and their difficult childhood. Also their time lines were in parallels with difficult times of transformation. Struggles for change and inequality were the perfect mixture to enhance their abilities in order to manipulate realities on their favor. The fact that they were hungry of knowledge and have nurtured their minds with books is on top of all mentioned the perfect skill to manipulate the mass in times were average individuals were more concern on a single piece of bread. Ignorant can be dangerous in a population that don't understand their surroundings.
July 18, 2022
I really enjoyed this book! I’ve always read and heard of the atrocities committed by the worst dictators of modern history but never knew their “backstory.” This book gives the full history of each character from childhood through their transition to radicalism to their inevitable deaths, the full character arc. Also explained is what could’ve driven them to make the choices they did, even though it was obviously the most inhumane path to take!
November 10, 2023
Delving into the young lives of people who later caused so much horror in the world was eye-opening. Gauthier's book was well-researched and a fast-paced engrossing read that makes you think about preventing such evil in the future.
January 2, 2022
Hmmm... This book demands of itself that it looks at the last century's worst tyrants, despots and suchlike, and shows them to be unquestionably human. The first cycle of chapters looks at them all – Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il Sung, in turn – from posterity, to show what the men did and why they are all generally hated. Towards the end we're privy to the key steps in their formative, teenaged and young adult years, the pedalling that got them to a place from where they could freewheel downhill to the hells they created. But the middle, second cycle zaps us back to the beginning, to show a biography that by omission definitely includes the experiences they have common with us, the routine and unextraordinary, the mundane. The aim is never to go down the "ooh, weren't that little ol' Adolf just misunderstood, the cheeky scamp!" route, nor to say we should all jump on board with the politics and purges of a humble lad from Gori, Georgia, but to demand we realise these are normal human beings. "If you prick us do we not bleed?" indeed.
This second chunk shows the people who ended up in similar positions actually had fairly varied upbringings – while Lenin's one of great educational prestige courtesy his father was matched by Mao's own bookishness, Hitler's one of fecklessness was neither helped nor hindered by a violent father and a doting mum. Mussolini had little impetus to become a common criminal, twice charged with stabbing a school-mate. But they all had to have had the same food and life and circumstance as millions of compatriots who didn't go rogue; they all found books and girls and bruises (apart from Hitler and lasses) and they all bounced around until they found their set path in life, just like us.
... And they all got friendly nicknames or had diminutives. Which is where the problem lies, for me. The book both wants us to know initially what Mao did, so we then have his upbringing to reflect on, but the whole narrative doesn't call him Mao – he's Renzhi, a nickname whose pronunciation will leave some readers guessing, and that's a flaw for me. In learning how Renzhi did all this, shagged all those women, and led the Cultural Revolution of students smashing up millions of lives for the sake of 'rebellion', it's like reading a fiction, a story of a dictator on another planet. Kim Il Sung (sorry, Song-ju) is definitely living under the influence of Japan, but Song-Ju is just Song-Ju, and not the creator of a tyrannical dynasty on its third generation. You're far too close to the end before learning why both names are applicable.
The idea is that this is not The Fuhrer Hitler, but The Human Hitler, the Everyman-Gone-Wrong Hitler. Now, his chapters are easier, as they call him Adolf, but dressing all of Stalin's sins as the fault of Soso, when they were never anything like being so-so, and even when you don't fully itemise them, doesn't help. I'm not sure whether his parents, Keke and Beso, now sound more like white goods brands or African footballers. The whole is a gimmick that adds nothing to these pages.
That said, they do contain a lot of information I should have known – I don't think I've ever read so much about Mussolini, and a lot of gaps in my patchy history knowledge were filled in (especially when it's Lenin's older brother). The narrative is very readable, at least when you don't chase down the thousand-plus notes and references. It is, as usual, utterly anti-DPRK (with many irrelevant anecdotes from people who have fled, and some snide comment about how the Kims have never made it easy for the White House to stop hating them that really should be looked at from Pyongyang's POV for once). But on the whole it appeared balanced, seemed knowledgable and correct, and at least aimed at doing the right thing, of taking these men out of their mausolea and showing us what we all have in common. But in misusing childhood monikers and making these men feel unearthly strangers, they don't appear to be one of us as intended.
This second chunk shows the people who ended up in similar positions actually had fairly varied upbringings – while Lenin's one of great educational prestige courtesy his father was matched by Mao's own bookishness, Hitler's one of fecklessness was neither helped nor hindered by a violent father and a doting mum. Mussolini had little impetus to become a common criminal, twice charged with stabbing a school-mate. But they all had to have had the same food and life and circumstance as millions of compatriots who didn't go rogue; they all found books and girls and bruises (apart from Hitler and lasses) and they all bounced around until they found their set path in life, just like us.
... And they all got friendly nicknames or had diminutives. Which is where the problem lies, for me. The book both wants us to know initially what Mao did, so we then have his upbringing to reflect on, but the whole narrative doesn't call him Mao – he's Renzhi, a nickname whose pronunciation will leave some readers guessing, and that's a flaw for me. In learning how Renzhi did all this, shagged all those women, and led the Cultural Revolution of students smashing up millions of lives for the sake of 'rebellion', it's like reading a fiction, a story of a dictator on another planet. Kim Il Sung (sorry, Song-ju) is definitely living under the influence of Japan, but Song-Ju is just Song-Ju, and not the creator of a tyrannical dynasty on its third generation. You're far too close to the end before learning why both names are applicable.
The idea is that this is not The Fuhrer Hitler, but The Human Hitler, the Everyman-Gone-Wrong Hitler. Now, his chapters are easier, as they call him Adolf, but dressing all of Stalin's sins as the fault of Soso, when they were never anything like being so-so, and even when you don't fully itemise them, doesn't help. I'm not sure whether his parents, Keke and Beso, now sound more like white goods brands or African footballers. The whole is a gimmick that adds nothing to these pages.
That said, they do contain a lot of information I should have known – I don't think I've ever read so much about Mussolini, and a lot of gaps in my patchy history knowledge were filled in (especially when it's Lenin's older brother). The narrative is very readable, at least when you don't chase down the thousand-plus notes and references. It is, as usual, utterly anti-DPRK (with many irrelevant anecdotes from people who have fled, and some snide comment about how the Kims have never made it easy for the White House to stop hating them that really should be looked at from Pyongyang's POV for once). But on the whole it appeared balanced, seemed knowledgable and correct, and at least aimed at doing the right thing, of taking these men out of their mausolea and showing us what we all have in common. But in misusing childhood monikers and making these men feel unearthly strangers, they don't appear to be one of us as intended.
July 19, 2022
Nothing super new in terms of information about the young lives of Dictators. It is interesting how they led such everyday lives until they didn't and how the world and their surroundings impacted how they decided to be adults.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews