Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots

by Peter York

Book Overview

Welcome to the fabulous lifestyles of the cruel and despotic. Running with the idea that our homes are where we are truly ourselves, Peter York's wildly original and scathingly funny look at the interior decorating tastes of some of history's most alarming dictators proves that absolute power corrupts absolutely, right down to the drapes. Mining rare, jaw-dropping photographs of interiors now mostly (thankfully) destroyed, York's hilarious profiles...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811853144
• ISBN13: 9780811853149
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.0" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

You won't be able to look away... the yucky way

"Dictator Style" is so repulsive you can't look away. This insight into the homes of some of the most evil men and women of the twentieth century reveals depravity, a ghastly lack of taste, and a glimpse into their lives. Common themes from a century of dictators are discussed up front. Gold, glass, marble, and 'larger than life' are the essentials. Other influences, are mentioned, but these stuck with me. Looking at the themes common to all the homes profiled, I was put in mind of pictures of Graceland, a Trump casino, or the home of someone who came into money entirely too quickly. As I write, I see that this is redundant. Imagery from the homes of Mobuto, Ceachescu, Saddam Hussein, Milosovic, Tito, Hitler, The Marcoses, Noreiga, and others, along with discussions of the... design decisions, provides a window into the minds of people who sought out absolute power. Milosovic's home struck me as the most tasteful (overdone for my tastes, but to each his own), without the insane overstatement of many of the others. He stood on the cusp between what appeared to be an 'old school' of over-doing European palaces, and the new school of just over-doing everything. Mobuto was amazing, creating a Chinese palace in Africa. Of course, Saddam Hussein took the cake with his dozens of palaces, in the most hideous taste. Even more interesting was that he routinely retired to very modest quarters. The snapshots of how these people chose to live are disturbing, pathetic, and tacky all at once. The taste displayed is utterly repulsive, but the people behind the images are so facinating that (in a repulsive way) you can't turn away.

Good Book

Very entertaining and a good present for someone who is difficult to buy for.

A Book You Can't Quite Put Down, Thankfully It's Small

The front end flap of the dust jacket says a lot about the book. It's a quote from P. J. O'Rourke: 'Saddam's chandelier was the size of a two-car garage. If a reason to invade Iraq was wanted, felony interior decorating would have done.' This book is a private look into the homes of sixteen dictators from around the world. Here are people to whom money is absolutely no object. But they did not contact Frank Lloyd Wright to seek a brilliant new design. They knew what they liked and they got it. Many of the photographs come from fifty or more years ago, so you need to temper your view with what was in fashion at the time. This is particularly true of the homes of Hitler, Stalin, Juan Peron. The more recent homes have a kind of fancy hotel lobby look. The book is fascinating. It's with a kind of macabre fascination that you want to see just how these people lived.

Pairing interior design with a funny look at history's alarming dictators

DICTATOR STYLE: LIFESTYLES OF THE WORLD'S MOST COLORFUL DESPOTS is a hard book to peg: pairing interior design with a funny look at history's alarming dictators, it blends a racy sense of humor with fun profiles of the inner sanctums of the terrifying. Sixteen such interiors - largely bygone by now - are featured along with dictator profiles and 'achievements': you don't know whether to laugh or cry - but will probably wind up doing both. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch