Iain Dale The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

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Were the signs that Putin is a ruthless dictator there all along? How should we deal with President Xi of China? Given the world seems to be moving more and more towards authoritarian rule, this is the right moment to seek warnings, and lessons, from history.In this talk Iain Dale draws from 64 essays by historians, academics, journalists and politicians about elected and unelected dictators, wartime and peacetime dictators, those driven by ideology and those with a reputation for sheer brutality. How did these tyrants, autocrats and despots seize power - and how did they exercise it? And how did they lose it? Very few dictators die peacefully in their own beds, after all.Only by examining these figures from the 6th century BC to the present, from ancient Greece to present day Saudi Arabia, do patterns start to emerge. We can see the shared character traits, the common conditions and the patterns of behaviour that have enabled dictators to seize power - time and time again.

The lessons from this talk are acutely relevant to world politics today: it is indeed a warning from history. Will we take heed? Or will history, in fact, teach us that history teaches us nothing?

Iain Dale is an award-winning broadcaster and was presenter of the Evening Show on LBC Radio. He is the author/editor of more than 30 books and co-host of the For the Many podcast and the Iain Dale Book Club podcast. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year for 2013 and 2016 and is the former Managing Director of Biteback Publishing. He hosts the theatre show Iain Dale All Talk.

Alex Puffette works as a political researcher for Iain Dale.

A Q&A Session will follow.