Enver Hoxha: Twentieth-Century Tyrant
Autor Robert C. Austin, Artan R. Hoxhaen Limba Engleză Hardback – 6 mai 2026
This is the first full-length biography of Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator who ruled Albania for nearly half a century. Hoxha was an unreformed Stalinist who was propelled to power with Soviet and Yugoslav help following the defeat of the Axis powers, though he soon broke with his former allies and built a Chairman Mao–like political cult in his tiny and impoverished nation. In this fluent and far-reaching account, Hoxha emerges as a paranoid megalomaniac, interested in maintaining control above all else, who excelled at manipulating his comrades and outsmarting his domestic and international enemies. This important book shines a light on the nature of dictatorship and on a lesser-known chapter in the history of the Cold War.
Preț: 137.74 lei
Precomandă
Puncte Express: 207
Preț estimativ în valută:
24.35€ • 29.03$ • 21.12£
24.35€ • 29.03$ • 21.12£
Carte nepublicată încă
Doresc să fiu notificat când acest titlu va fi disponibil:
Se trimite...
Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781836391661
ISBN-10: 1836391668
Pagini: 328
Ilustrații: 20 halftones
Dimensiuni: 156 x 234 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: REAKTION BOOKS
Colecția Reaktion Books
ISBN-10: 1836391668
Pagini: 328
Ilustrații: 20 halftones
Dimensiuni: 156 x 234 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: REAKTION BOOKS
Colecția Reaktion Books
Notă biografică
Robert C. Austin is professor at the University of Toronto and author of many books on the Balkans. Artan R. Hoxha is a historian of southeastern Europe based in Tirana, Albania.
Recenzii
“Traditional cradle-to-crematorium biography is not dead yet. . . . Enver Hoxha: Twentieth-Century Tyrant . . . reappraises the life of the Albanian communist dictator known for his vengefulness but also for his love of Norman Wisdom films.”
“Albania is one of the least-known European countries in large part because of one man: Enver Hoxha. He emerged as the unchallenged communist leader of the country in the aftermath of the Second World War. In power for over forty years, he bears much of the responsibility for the deep traumas which a free Albania has struggled to overcome. Yet despite his importance for the country and the Balkans more generally, Hoxha has yet to find a judicious biography in English. Until now. In measured elegant prose, Austin and Hoxha give a 360-degree picture of this remarkable, ruthless leader from his middle-class origins to his position of total power. Nobody was safe from Hoxha’s machinations, including some of his most trusted colleagues.”
"Enver Hoxha, though he governed a small and obscure country, was one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century. This important book reveals the depth of both his crimes and his vanity, in all their historical and cultural sweep."
"The canon of good history books about Albania in English is small, but this is a mighty addition to it. Austin and Hoxha have done a wonderful job in telling the Albanian dictator’s story and setting it in the context of his times. It is full of insights and thankfully devoid of all the usual clickbait cliches—bunkers, little-known country, the North Korea of Europe, blah, blah, blah. This is a solid piece of scholarship. It examines Hoxha’s story and explores the essential who, how, why, what, and where. It is not a book in which everything and everyone is either described as black or white or good and bad which is the normal approach to writing about Hoxha and his life and times. Maybe it is the passage of time which has cooled the emotion that used to color books about this period, but that means the authors have succeeded in exploring the nuances of Hoxha’s rule and they are not afraid to voice what some will find uncomfortable opinions. They masterfully explain how to understand Hoxha we need to see the continuity rather than the breaks between Zog and fascism and finally his rule. The interplay of Hoxha’s Marxist-Leninist worldview and Albanian nationalism is fascinating, as is the way the dictator sought immortality though his legacy. Finally, the authors explain how it is crucial to understand this very legacy in order to understand the often tragic course of Albanian history in the wake of communism."
“Albania is one of the least-known European countries in large part because of one man: Enver Hoxha. He emerged as the unchallenged communist leader of the country in the aftermath of the Second World War. In power for over forty years, he bears much of the responsibility for the deep traumas which a free Albania has struggled to overcome. Yet despite his importance for the country and the Balkans more generally, Hoxha has yet to find a judicious biography in English. Until now. In measured elegant prose, Austin and Hoxha give a 360-degree picture of this remarkable, ruthless leader from his middle-class origins to his position of total power. Nobody was safe from Hoxha’s machinations, including some of his most trusted colleagues.”