Tyrants: The World's Worst Dictators—An Exploration of the World's Most Notorious Despots and Their Dark Regimes

Today more than ever, international headlines are dominated by dispatches from the many dictatorships that still dot the globe. Although Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been deposed, North Korea's Kim Jong-il continues to attract attention on the world stage; at the same time, other dictatorships, led by royal families, military juntas, and single political parties, persist in repressing and brutalizing their citizens without ever attracting anything like Saddam's or Kim Jong-il's level of international attention.

In this fascinating, eye-opening read, New York Times bestselling author David Wallechinsky offers in-depth portraits of each of the twenty worst dictators -- and the governments they head -- currently in power: exposing their crimes, and revealing their strange personalities and mysterious backgrounds. Tyrants also reveals the extent that foreign corporations and governments support these tyrants despite their policies.

Timely and provocative, crafted with the popular touch that has made Wallechinsky a bestselling author, Tyrants will awaken you to the criminal regimes of the present -- and pose challenging questions about America's role in curbing (or promoting) their power in the future.

The Tyrant Hall of Shame includes:

• Kim Jong-il/North Korea
• Hu Jintao/China
• Seyed Ali Khamenei/Iran
• King Abdullah/Saudi Arabia
• Muammar al-Qaddafi/Libya
• Omar al-Bashir/Sudan
• Islam Karimov/Uzbekistan
• Saparmurat Niyazov/Turkmenistan
• Fidel Castro/Cuba