Tyrants, then and now

Not all tyrants are Voldemort. Waller R. Newell explains why.

The history of tyranny is not black and white; not all tyrants have been Voldemort-like, argues Newell, a professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University. He examines a long line of them, from Roman emperors and Robespierre to Hitler, Stalin and the ayatollahs of Iran. Tyranny, he finds, has had a “strange career . . . as both the oppressor of liberty and the builder of civilizations.” Moreover, tyranny is also about personalities who attract zealous followers. These power-seekers are “outsized, sometimes charismatic, sometimes amusing, always fascinating and frightening,” a description that could fit Donald Trump. (The leaders of the Islamic State are merely “tyrants in waiting,” he says.)

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