Category: Crazy Stories

The modern political theory of democracy is viewed almost universally as an improvement on the systems that came before it, but there are some obvious problems. Obviously, one of the problems is that clever demagogues can find a way to manipulate the system, and votes, to come to power. Many of the dictators in this […]

All of the dictators profiled in this book made crazy decisions that cost millions of lives, destroyed countries, and usually led to the end of the dictator. Sometimes it was just one or two crazy decisions that had one major impact, but other times it was a whole series of craziness that gradually wore down […]

We’ve seen how some dictators were able to successfully navigate the often-precarious world of the Cold War era and use it to their advantage. Some of these smaller nations in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America would cozy up to the USA or USSR to get favors, while outwardly professing a Marxist or capitalist […]

When World War II ended, things didn’t go back to “normal” in the world. The United States and the Soviet Union became the two primary superpowers, replacing the British Empire in the process. The British had incurred massive wartime debts and just weren’t able to keep their empire together. The same was true with the […]

Yugoslavia was never a real country by most definitions. Yes, it had defined borders and a government, but most of its inhabitants never viewed themselves as “Yugoslavians.” Instead, they saw themselves as their ethnicity first—Croat, Serb, Bosnian, Slovene, or Albanian—and then, possibly, as Yugoslavs. The very concept of the Yugoslavian nation was artificial and contrived, […]

Yahya Jammeh doesn’t seem like a cruel despot when you first see pictures of him or hear him talk on video. The ebullient African usually had a smile on his face, was often dressed in traditional African garb, and generally didn’t seem menacing at all. So, how much of a threat could he be? Jammeh […]

If you’ve heard of the country of Turkmenistan, you’re ahead of the curve by about 90%. That isn’t to say that Turkmenistan isn’t a great country and that its people aren’t wonderful, just that the central Asian nation isn’t really known for much other than being the fourth-largest producer of natural gas in the world. […]

As far as dictators go, Nikita Khrushchev was definitely far less brutal than many of the men in our book. It helps that he took the reins of power in the Soviet Union right after Stalin died in 1953—definitely anyone would look less brutal after him, right? Khrushchev was also far more diplomatic than his […]

It would be an understatement to say that the West and Islam have had a complicated relationship. After Muhammad, the founder of Islam, died in 632 CE, the religion underwent a rapid and often violent expansion into Christian territories. Muslim forces conquered parts of the Christian Byzantine Empire and even conquered Spain and threatened France […]

Modern China is often viewed as somewhat of a miracle society. It went from a hardcore, repressive dictatorship with a closed society and economy, to a wider, more open and economically successful economy in just a couple of decades. Of course, no one will say China isn’t without many problems today. It’s still a one-party […]