The Three Dictators: Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler.

Owen (Frank)

Published by George Allen & Unwin, 1940

About this Item

FIRST EDITION, three portrait plates, a couple of pages gently browned from previous insert, pp. 266, [6, list], crown 8vo, original red cloth, backstrip and uppper board lettered in black, touch of wear at tail of backstrip, slightly darkened to extremities, top edge red and a little dusty, free endpapers faintly browned, the flyleaf with a light vertical crease, striking photographic dustjacket showing a Nazi rally, faintly sunned to backstrip panel, slightly chipped at extremities, very short tear and a little creasing at head of rear panel, very good. Scarce. At the time of publication, the author was editor of the Evening Standard; he had earlier been a Liberal MP, being the youngest member of the House when elected in 1929. Following the formation of the National Government, he stepped away from politics and returned to journalism - in which role he alerted readers to the growing threat within Europe (including by publishing sections of 'Mein Kampf'), in the form of the three dictators presented here. The three men are shown to have aspects of commonality in the formation of the will-to-power that is their essence, 'all obscure, oppressed, resentful' - though in other respects 'utterly at variance', and incapable of anything more than uneasy alliance. Published early in the War, the book is heavier on diagnosis than prognosis, though its warnings, about the nature of these demagogues and their threat to 'the whole destiny of the civilized world', are clear.

Seller Inventory # 77059

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Three Dictators: Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler.
• Publisher: George Allen & Unwin
• Publication Date: 1940
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