Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe

Author:   Ian Kershaw
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN:  

9780141998237


Pages:   512
Publication Date:   28 September 2023
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe


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Overview

The acclaimed historian explores how far individual leaders can alter the course of history The modern era saw the emergence of individuals who had command over a terrifying array of instruments of control, persuasion and death. Whole societies were re-shaped and wars fought, often with a merciless contempt for the most basic norms. At the summit of these societies were leaders whose personalities had somehow given them the ability to do whatever they wished. Ian Kershaw's new book is a compelling, lucid and challenging attempt to understand these rulers, whether operating on the widest stage (Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini) or with a more national impact (Tito, Franco). What was it about these leaders and the times they lived in that allowed them such untrammelled and murderous power? And what brought that era to an end? In a contrasting group of profiles, from Churchill to de Gaulle, Adenauer to Gorbachev, and Thatcher to Kohl, Kershaw uses his exceptional skills to think through how other, strikingly different figures wielded power.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ian Kershaw
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:   Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 12.60cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 19.60cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9780141998237


ISBN 10:   0141998237
Pages:   512
Publication Date:   28 September 2023
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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Reviews

Illuminating ... an insightful series of essays about 12 exceptional leaders who stood at the centre of Europe's 20th century. -- Philip Stephens * Financial Times * Few historians are better qualified to answer these questions than Ian Kershaw ... As always, he proves a splendid miniaturist, expertly sketching personalities and philosophies in a few coolly judged lines ... If Kershaw's book has a contemporary lesson, it is that societies are probably happiest and healthiest when leaders matter least. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * Sir Ian Kershaw, the great (in both senses) biographer of Adolf Hitler, makes an important contribution to this debate ... persuasive and nuanced pen-portraits ... well-researched, well-written and thought-provoking. -- Andrew Roberts * Daily Telegraph * Lucid portraits of the leaders who shaped Europe's 20th century ... There is much to be admired in Kershaw's cogent and astute analysis. -- Orlando Figes * The Observer *


Author Information

Ian Kershaw is the author of Hitler 1889-1936- Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945- Nemesis, which received the Wolfson Literary Award for History and the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for the Political Book of the Year, and was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize. His other books include Making Friends with Hitler, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography; Fateful Choices; The End; and his histories of modern Europe, To Hell and Back and Roller-Coaster.

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