Engineers of Human Souls: Four Writers Who Changed Twentieth-Century Minds

In a time when writers were used as political tools, ENGINEERS OF HUMAN SOULS explores the intimate and shocking shadow history of creative vanity and the dangerous relationships that formed between writers and dictators.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 25 January 2024
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Four writers. Four dictators. One world, changed out of all recognition. ENGINEERS OF HUMAN SOULS is an intimate and shocking shadow history of creative vanity in a time that turned writers - once the faithful servants of authority - into figures of political consequence.

Maurice Barrès, who first wielded the politics of identity. Gabriele D Annunzio, whose poetry became a blueprint for fascism. Maxim Gorky, dramatist of the working class and Stalin's cheerleader. The Maoist Ding Ling, whose stories exculpated the regime that kept her imprisoned.

All four nursed extravagant visions of the future, and believed they were vital to its realization. Each was lured to the center of political action. Each established a dangerous and damaging relationship with a notorious dictator. And when writers and rulers find a use for each other, the consequences can be shattering for us all.

These stories - of courage and compromise, vanity and malevolence - speak urgently to the uncontrollable power of words.

Weight: 610g
Dimension: 163 x 243 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780349128566