Andre de Guillaume

This little "Handbook for the Aspiring Dictator" made an interesting contrast to another book I was recently reading at about the same time, The Secret School of Wisdom. Both are seemingly heterodox takes on political science with an overarching didactic emphasis, although How to Rule the World is presented as humor from a failed leader of a coup d'état attempted in the 1970s and The Secret School collects translated documents from a secret society suppressed in the 1780s. How to Rule the show more World expresses a philosophy of governance nearly diametrically opposed to the one encoded in the old Illuminati documents. It is full of quotes and anecdotes from named personalities (versus the rigorous anonymity of the 18th-century documents), and it stresses the exploitation of social resources for individual aggrandizement (versus the cultivation of individual resources for the elevation of society).

I enjoyed Robin Chevalier's cartoons that pervasively illustrated How to Rule the World. Although the Chicago Review Press has tagged the book "HUMOR" on the corner of the back cover, the satirical elements failed ever to wring a laugh out of me. "It's funny because it's true" doesn't necessarily stick in our second-time-as-farce society. "American real estate developer and mogul" Donald Trump is quoted as a dictatorial exemplar ("Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score," 95). But by that point in my reading, I had already recognized his style in some of the author's direct instructions, such as this from the section on "Decision-making":

"In a dictatorship, all-powerful rule centers on making things happen. In coming to any decision, therefore, there are just two things to consider:
- Will my decision confound my enemies?
- Will it make me richer?" (69)

This book was published during the US administration of George W. Bush, who is mentioned only in passing as an "ambitious ruler" with "a big idea" (89). I guess I could have enjoyed it more if I weren't able to recognize so many of the attributes and propensities of its historical and hypothetical dictators in the current governing class of our putative democracies. show less

Falling under the category of “and now for something completely different,” we have "How to Rule the World: A Handbook for the Aspiring Dictator". I picked this book up for my daughter, but I felt I needed to pre-screen it to make sure it would be age appropriate (she’s 11). It was laugh out loud hysterical.

Including sections on determining whether you have the right personality to become a dictator (do you have Citizen Kane on DVD? Do you like giving instructions in a loud voice?) it show more moves on to “practical” tips on establishing your empire including means of building your wealth and helpful hints on leaving your legacy (even Mussolini made the trains run on time) including examples of other dictators’ successes – Lenin’s statues were VERY hard to destroy, keep that in mind.

Although mostly tongue in cheek fun, what made the book particularly noteworthy was the unexpected facts dropped in about world leaders. Hardly a text you would cite in your next research paper, but much of the info was new to me, and simply lining up the Caesars’ helped a lot.

It’s heading into the hands of my daughter next – maybe she and I can work together designing our flags (there’s a chapter on that, too!). Highly Recommended show less

Book Review: https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/03/14/book-review-how-to-rule-the-world-a-hand....

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Excerpt:
Who doesn’t want to Rule the World? This is a humorous look at dictatorship, poking fun at the idea of it in a satirical fashion via a “handbook” style piece of work. There is some historical information and a bit of factual basis to this, but through and through though its a satirical piece of work. It talks of past dictators – Hitler, Alexander the Great, Stalin, Mao, show more etc, and gives evidence for how they took charge, how they seized power, how they controlled and maintained power, and even how they lost their power (or their lives).
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See full book review here: https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/03/14/book-review-how-to-rule-the-world-a-hand....

Pretty funny quick read, little bits of information, spread around with humor. show less

Really enjoyed this book, simple but entertaining. All about how to be a dictator. Written in a humorous style, but written by a would be dictator himself. This makes it quite interesting.