Written by one of the leading historians of 20th-century Europe and author of the biography of Hitler, this book skillfully demonstrates how human character, conspired with opportunity and fortune, created the terrifying autocratic figures of the modern era. The 20th century was marked by the emergence of certain individuals who came to wield a horrifying range of control, persuasion, and death mechanisms. Entire wars erupted, and societies were reshaped, often with a ruthless disregard for the most basic human data. At the peaks of these societies stood leaders who acted at will, regardless of the consequences.

Ian Kershaw's new book is a fascinating, clear, and bold attempt to understand these leaders, who dramatically took center stage either on the global or a more limited national scene (from Lenin and Stalin to Hitler and Mussolini, and from Tito to Franco). What did these leaders and the times they lived in have that allowed them to exercise such unrestrained and lethal power? And what led to the end of this era? By juxtaposing another group of portraits (from Churchill to de Gaulle, from Adenauer to Gorbachev, and from Thatcher to Kohl), Kershaw shows how other countries took different paths. In doing so, he completes the panorama of the diverse and unexpected ways in which personality is involved in the matter of power.