‘Dictatorship It’s Easier than You Think’, a graphic non-fiction by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa       Illustrated by Kasia Babis    (2023) – 270 pages

This graphic non-fiction presents itself as a mock users’ manual for would-be dictators in the future. Some of the authoritarian techniques discussed are “Attack the press”, “Make it entertaining”, “Symbols and slogans”, “Personality cult”, “Gut all institutions of accountability”, “Get the opposition to appease you”, “Turn average citizens into troops”, “Pack the courts”, and “The Big Lie”. The book discusses the various brutal methods that such infamous dictators as Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Kim Il Sung, Benito Mussolini, and Idi Amin used to suppress and murder their own people and stay in power. Two things that sustain a dictator is a love of power and an absence of shame.

“What did Stalin get in return for killing millions of his people? Land, money, and power – all those things that make a dictator’s life worth living.”

Today Putin is rehabilitating Stalin’s image in Russia with statues, in school textbooks, and with other propaganda.

Our host presents all this material in a somewhat humorous manner, but the goal of this graphic non-fiction is deadly serious, to remind us of the millions of their own and other people these dictators have murdered, and of the limited suppressed lives the people under these dictators must live. The ultimate goal is to convince people to reject dictatorship in their own country while they still can.

This graphic book covers would-be dictators as well as dictators. Alongside the severe techniques of these established dictators from the recent past and present, we get the flagrant misconduct of Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and of Donald Trump.

The right to free speech is often used by politicians as a justification for hate speech.

“Your base must never see their fellow citizens as human or they’ll be much less likely to beat and kill them.”

In 2016, counties that had Trump rallies experienced a huge increase in hate crimes compared to counties that did not host Trump rallies.

If this were written as a somber history text, it would be difficult to read of all the brutal murderous activities of all these dictators and would-be dictators. The graphic novel format personalizes the sorry events for the readers, so that they realize the extent of the evil committed by these dictators.

‘Dictatorship’ is a valuable book. There are many ruthless dictators in the world right now, and so far only a few fortunate countries have been able to avoid them. It can happen here.

Grade :   A