The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
Goodies and baddies
ALEX HALL puts on asbestos gloves to handle a simple-minded ideological work of the ruling class
Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators who want to run the World
Anne Applebaum, Allen Lane, £20
THE world is divided into goodies and baddies. Baddies are identified by their nation and their leader, the principal ones being Russia and China with strong supporting roles for Venezuela, Iran, Belarus, Syria, Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
They all hang together in a club called Autocracy, Inc, a mixture of shadowy bodies that practice kleptocracy (“government by theft,”) rule with an iron fist, and empower a narrow elite at the top.
Their primary interests are being evil and acquiring power and money. All the baddies hate democracy. They tell a lot of lies, bedazzling the stupid populations in their own countries and abroad.
More from this author
ALEX HALL exposes the moral double standards peddled by Western media in name of political expediency when dealing with Hamas
ALEX HALL recommends a meticulous and fascinating academic account of the development of Lebanon’s ‘Party of God’
ALEX HALL recommends a considered and unemotional evaluation of the history and strategic choices made by Hamas
ALEX HALL revels in the fascinating details of village life unearthed by a model of local history research
Similar stories
In a year press disinformation, ALEX HALL picks out the best and worst
MATTHEW ALFORD questions the establishment-pleasing politics that underlie so-called ‘political satire’
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a collection of folk tales, each of which is dazzling flash of human experience, natural or supernatural
At times I was baffled, incredulous, irritated but I never stopped loving this milestone of 21st century science fiction for a single page, writes MAT COWARD