Books in Heroes and Villains series

Idi Amin, who preferred to be called "Big Daddy," will go down in history as one of the most vilified mass murderers of the twentieth century. Self proclaimed President of Uganda, Amin illegally seized power in a military coup in 1971 and tyrannically ruled ten million fellow Ugandans until he ignominiously fled the African country in 1979. In his wake Amin left deplorable examples of brutality, torture, murder, and demented personal behavior. During his eight years of barbaric rule an estimated three hundred thousand Ugandans were killed by his orders. Although Amin died in exile in 2003 a failed dictator, there is still much to be learned about Uganda's history, Amin's dictatorship, and how he orchestrated his rise to power and maintained power while inflicting so much pain on his followers.

Born the son of peasant farmers whose connections with the royal palace afforded him a European education, Pol Pot became the leader of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or the Khmer Rouge. As such, he and his followers were ultimately responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 to 4 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 and untold numbers between 1979 and his death in 1998. Despite his bloody resume, most who knew him from childhood onward, found Pol Pot to be a pleasant, affable, and sweet-natured person. In following his life, this book looks at the contradictions, the mysteries, and myths that surround this compelling figure.

The Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler has come to be seen, by almost universal affirmation, as the personification of evil. Indeed, he has more than earned his reputation as perhaps the most infamous villain in history. In a riveting narrative, supported by numerous primary source documents, a noted historian surveys the twisted life and deeds of the false messiah that plunged the world into the most destructive war in history.