الحكّامُ الأكثَرُ خَبَلاً في التَاريخ

by Michael Rank, مُضر آل أحميّد (ترجمة)

قلة هي الأمور التي اذا امتزجت أصبحت بخطورة مزيج السلطة المطلقة والاختلال العقلي. فعندما لا يحول شيء بين نزوات زعيم واوهامه وبين تحقيقها، تُصبح كل النتائج الغريبة محتملة.

وفيما اذا كان الحديث عن السلطان العثماني إبراهيم الاول وهو يمارس الرماية على خدم قصره او يرسل مستشاريه لأيجاد أكثر نساء الإمبراطورية بدانة ليتخذها زوجة؛ أو كان الحديث عن رئيس تركمانستان (تركمانباشي) وهو يغير أسماء ايام الاسبوع على اسمه ويشيّد تمثالا ذهبيا يبلغ ارتفاعه خمسة وعشرون مترا يدور ليواجه الشمس، فقد حل الحكام المخبولون بليّة على المجتمعات لآلاف السنين.

سيتناول هذا الكتاب حيوات الحكام العشرة الأكثر اختلالا عقليا على مر التاريخ. عانى بعضهم من إضطرابات جينية قادت الى الفصام، كالملك الفرنسي شارل السادس، والذي ظن أنه مصنوع من الزجاج. بينما آمن أخرون بأنهم ممثلو الله في الأرض، ومع أنهم بالكاد عرفوا القراءة والكتابة، فقد كتبوا كتابات دينية تضمن دخول من يقرأها الجنة.

ومهما كان سندهم في ذلك، فقد اثبت اولئك الحكّام الى أن حكم السلالة يضمن اعتلاء ولي العهد المستحق العرش- على الرغم من حالة ولي العهد العقلية- وانّ السلطة قد تفسد العقل أكثر مما قد تفعل الامراض العقلية.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Biography, Government

ebook

First published March 29, 2013

About the author

Michael Rank is a doctoral candidate in Middle East history. He has studied Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Armenian, but can still pull out a rural Midwestern accent if need be. He also worked as a journalist in Istanbul for nearly a decade and reported on religion and human rights.

He is the author of the #1 Amazon best seller “From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa: A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History,” and “History's Worst Dictators: A Short Guide to the Most Brutal Leaders, From Emperor Nero to Ivan the Terrible.”

Reviews

[Lilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letter to the author:

Dear Mr. Rank,

I recently read your little booklet “History’s Most Insane Rulers". I found it very interesting (yet also quite scary) and fully agree with you that power and madness are in most cases a deadly mixture, resulting in vast destruction and millions of people dead.

However, I really have to scold you for your sloppy writing. This little booklet reads like an unedited first draft, or rather a drafted skeleton of a writing project. Why don’t you treat it as such and make a real book out of this little booklet? (Don’t forget to hire an editor, as reading your author profile I understand that you have no time for editing.)

Yet first and foremost, make sure that your final (and hopefully well edited) edition will be updated to include insane rulers up to our present days. I am particularly thinking of one crazy ruler who is presently causing a lot of trouble and may be about to put the world on fire.

I am looking forward to the publication of your edited, extended, and updated book, which I herewith promise to buy, read, and review.

Yours truly,

Lilo Huhle-Poelzl

P.S. I also just read your little booklet “From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa: A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History.” Will review it as soon as my computer allows. It keeps crashing. Might have been hacked by some villains from the Middle or the Far East.

[Floqueta · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a history buff, I found this book very interesting and I learnt about some dictators I had no knowledge of, like Ne Win of Burma and Turkmenbashi of Turkmenistan. The terrible things that can happen to people living under such kind of rulers, but I see that dictators are all much alike (I mean mad or not mad) and their methods of retaining power too.

The author manages to tell the stories of those excentric and megalomaniac rulers in a easy way, with many interesting details, and without being boring. Some details are rather amusing too.

And what a coincidence: An amusing detail I liked especially was that the author mentions the existence of a painting of Caligula by Salvador Dali which is not exaggerated at all. Because in the painter Dali, we have an excentric “mad” man that was not so at all, he acted sometimes like a clown, but only faked it as a marketing strategy of himself.

After reading the book, I am feeling the necessity to learn much more about some of these rulers. So this is a very positive point for the book in my view, but I was disappointed by it being too short. This is the reason I only give it 3 stars.

I got a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

[Paulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book but I thought there were more people who could be added to the list.

[Ardra · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I won this book through a First Reads Giveaway***

This book arrived this afternoon, and here I am, a few hours later, finished reading and ready to review (despite a usual jam-packed day!) "History's Most Insane Rulers" is a quick (<80 pages), fascinating read about some of the more extreme megalomaniac or tragically insane rulers, spanning from early AD to modern times. Each chapter is a concise overview thoroughly packed with information, but still delivered in an entertaining, highly readable style. The author includes experts theories about why the rulers turned out the way they did, such as inbreeding in royal bloodlines, in King George III's case combined with medieval medical care that included high amounts of arsenic, or in several cases within the last century, some type of anti-social personality disorder, with malevolent narcissism that became exaggerated as the rulers become drunk on their own power.

I recommend this book if you enjoy reading about history and don't have a lot of time to do it, or if you are just fascinated with ruthless leaders that have revamped their countries in extreme ways. This could be a good jumping off point to find an area of interest in history to delve deeper into. I am very interested in reading the author's other books, especially "From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa: A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History".

I will be very pleased if the other Goodreads Giveaway books I win are as good as this one!

[Kal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Won a copy of this here on Goodreads for a honest review.

Fun little pocketbook on some of the craziest rulers in history. Each chapter give information on the insane things each ruler did during the time in power, why they did it, and occasionally what caused their madness. Not all the rulers are in the distant past, a few just recently deceased. Rank even touches on the future of the "mad" rulers/dictators. I recommend it for history buffs that want a quick read, or anyone with a small interest the crazy reign of some of the worlds more mad rulers.

[Madge Madigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few chapters were good, interesting, fun reading. To hear all the outlandish things some of the rulers had done was quite amusing and a little disturbing. Made me feel pretty normal! However the last two chapters took a sharp turn that was an abrupt departure from the first few. It suddenly turned serious and analytical. Then the last chapter was a little annoying as it was a plug for the next book (which is completely different subject matter) wrapped in a chapter. If the author had kept going with just chapters about kooky leaders, I would have loved this book.

[Alex Richmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, great for those who are not well versed in history and need a easier starting point. The chapters are easy and short, giving information about the rulers, the actions that mark themselves as insane. And their deaths and legacy.

I do feel there was a lack of condemning some of these leaders, mainly the newer ones. They may have caused advanced their nations, but over all killed large groups of people and destroyed freedom. Evil should not be justified, and if positives are pointed out from their legacy? The cost most be reminded.

[Kim Propp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. My son just finished fourth grade and so we studied many of the relatives in this book when we studied Revolutions. I heard about the 'family disease' that is described in this book in a college art class that touched on it, but never explained it. Wow! Crazy stuff! Now to read the rest of Michael Rank's books. Thanks for making history fun!

[Becki Basley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really well written. I just made me personally realize that I need to keep up with world politics more. It's pretty scary that most of the "insane" rulers mentioned have been in power within either my parents or my lifetime and I didn't even know about them until I read this book or I had heard about them but didn't know why they were so terrible.

[James Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers a number of insane rulers including Caligula, Charles VI of France and a variety of others. One of the most interesting points in the book was how inter-marriage among the rulers in Europe led to genetic problems which led to the insanity in some of them. The book is a little short, though.

[Brian Ashmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book, gave a touch of information about each ruler and why they were one the most insane list. I would have liked an appendix with sources to do more of my own detail searching. Interesting, none the least

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best pocket history books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I won this great book through the giveaway swction here on goodreads, and I love it. It now has permanent spot on top of my bookshelf, and I have reread every chapter at least twice.

[Manda Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not half bad. It's interesting enough to keep me reading but it doesn't go in depth enough. There is just enough to make me want to read more about the rulers.

There are a few rather annoying typos, though. They jarred me out of my reading haze.

[Muther Alohmayed · Rating 4 out of 5]

يتحدث مؤلف هذا الكتاب، وهو صحفي تنّقل بين العديد من الدول، عن مجموعة من الحكّام الطواغيت، المستبدين، مختلي العقل، والمصابين بجنون العظمة. فيذكر في الكتاب تصرفاتهم الغريبة، وقراراتهم المخبولة التي أذاقت شعوبهم العذاب تارة، والمجاعة تارات أخرى. فيه معلومات شيّقة وغريبة

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. The one prevailing theme through all these rulers is the presence of severe mental health issues. That's not to say everyone with mental health issues will act the same but these rulers did.

[Joanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed like a timely read considering the upcoming election. It was a quick read, but I wish there had been more substance to the book. I did appreciate the information that was here, but there just was not enough.

[Shane Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

bathing in dolphin blood, renaming cities and months after yourself and family members, dressing like elvis, genetic diseases from inbreeding, you name it and this book has it.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kurzweiliges Buch, vielleicht etwas kurz geraten. Für den Preis ok. Ich hätte mir mehr altertümliche und mittelalterliche Beispiele erhofft anstatt Diktatoren des 20. Jahrhunderts.

[Benjamin Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally a good book

This book had a lot of leaders I had never heard of its very eye opening to the history behind mental illness and politics.

[Alyson Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny and interesting

The book is a short and entertaining read that may introduce people to lesser known historical and a few modern infamous leaders.

[Stephen Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very interesting. If you are a history buff this is something to check out. Very short but informative.

[angus gerald moree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and decent

Decent read if you don't want an overwhelming amount of info about each subject. Short book for a plane or train.

[Hazel Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This light read is actually far deeper than it seems. The unstated obvious fact is that in spite of being complete whack jobs, the leaders described were, in fact, leaders (until they weren't). What was also unstated is that for millennia, people have had to suffer terrible leaders that only remained in power by brutally oppressing those who opposed even their most lunatic actions. Becoming obedient to the degree that you can convince yourself that a bad leader is a good leader is actually a pretty good survival skill for a human being to have in conditions like that. In addition, cohesive societies, even when led by lunatics, are more successful at survival and reproduction and more essentially hominid than loose groups that don't cooperate. We form the largest cooperative mammalian societies on earth, rivaled in our social behavior by only hive insects, according to many evolutionary scientists. The ability to accept dogma is the downside of that. As a student of authoritarian behavior (the ability to compartmentalize to ignore glaring contradictions and rationalize abusive behavior and remain stubbornly loyal to leaders who absolutely do not have your best interest at heart), I learned more about the origins of that seemingly aberrant behavior than from texts directly describing the behavior. Quite fascinating.

[Herman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick little read, some interesting stuff a future addition might have a chapter for our current president in it I feel but even if he doesn't degenerate that far I think the number of chapters should be increased certainly Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Ivan the Terrible, and Pol Pot should have been included.

[Draco Sanguinis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro donde encontrará excentricidades de aquellos hombres que han logrado (o han Sido subidos) obtener grandes puestos de responsabilidad, pero que tiene. Elementos pocos comunes en su ejercicio y vivir cotidiano.

[KATHRYN L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly interesting!

[Juan Mesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aparte de tener un titulo interesante, el libro no hace mas que enumerar hechos ya conocido en la historia, no hay una análisis de cada personaje que haga que el libro tenga algún merito en si mismo

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this as a quick listen for my tweeners. It was informative and focused on not-so-known nut jobs like Hitler. I wouldn't recommend for 10 and under (especially the Caligula chapter), but for younger teens with an understanding of leadership, this is an excellent supplement to curricula not found in public school history classes.

[Sheikh Rajiuddin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Information could be fine, what I did not like is the writers own views on the rulers he mentioned in the book! I guess the writer specially didnt like the communist rulers (or should I say, the rulers who didnt go for American democracy)!
Very disappointed as a reader!

[Nicholas Maulucci · Rating 2 out of 5]

an interesting book recalling wacky dictators and rulers through the centuries. Katie and I even watched a short documentary on Turkmenistan's weird dictator, turkmen bashi. no practicality, though, in the book. lot of interesting facts. recommended for those in any type of reading contest.