{"product_id":"big-caesars-and-little-caesars-ferdinand-mount-9781399409728","title":"Big Caesars and Little Caesars: How They Rise and How They Fall - From Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Wry, informative but deadly - a great book'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill Hutton \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Fast-paced and impassioned'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eWho said that dictatorship was dead? The world today is full of Strong Men and their imitators. A fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seized power and why they fell.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere is a comforting illusion shared by historians and political commentators, that history progresses in a nice straight line towards liberal democracy or socialism, despite the odd hiccup. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEvery democracy, however sophisticated or stable it may look, has been attacked or actually destroyed by a would-be Caesar, from Ancient Greece to the present day. Marx was wrong. Caesarism is not an absurd throwback, it is an ever-present danger. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere are Big Caesars who set out to achieve total social control and Little Caesars who merely want to run an agreeable kleptocracy without opposition: from Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell through Napoleon and Bolivar, to Mussolini, Salazar, De Gaulle and Trump. The saga of Boris Johnson and Brexit is a vivid, if Lilliputian instance of the same phenomenon. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe final part of this book describes how and why would-be Caesars come to grief, from the Gunpowder Plot to Trump's march on the Capitol and the ejection of Boris Johnson by his own MPs, and ends with a defence of the grubby glories of parliamentary politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ferdinand Mount\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1399409727\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781399409728\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Continuum\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/07\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.79h x 5.08w x 1.00d","brand":"Ferdinand Mount","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46070439313663,"sku":"9781399409728","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4d0792d2-c16a-4cd8-96d3-0082bc3c27ec.jpg?v=1724243271","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/big-caesars-and-little-caesars-ferdinand-mount-9781399409728","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}