Philip Short Livres

One of the great figures of the twentieth century, Chairman Mao looms irrepressibly over the economic rise of China. Mao Zedong was the leader of a revolution, a communist who lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, an aggressive and distrustful leader, and a man responsible for more civilian deaths than perhaps any other historical figure. Now, four decades after Mao's death, acclaimed biographer Philip Short presents a fully updated and revised edition of his ground-breaking and masterly biography. Vivid, uncompromising and unflinching, Short presents in one-volume the man behind the propaganda - his family, his beliefs and his horrors. In doing so he shows us both the human being Mao was, and the monster he became.

"The monumental biography of the most influential leader on the world stage in the last twenty years. Vladimir Putin is a pariah to the West. Alone among world leaders, he has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm and has threatened to do so. He invades his neighbours, most recently Ukraine, meddles in western elections and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. The regime he heads is autocratic and corrupt. Yet many Russians continue to support him. Despite western sanctions, the majority have been living better than at any time in the past. By fair means or foul, under Putin's leadership, Russia has once again become a force to be reckoned with. Philip Short's magisterial biography explores in unprecedented depth the personality of its enigmatic and ruthless leader and demolishes many of our preconceptions about Putin's Russia. Since becoming President in 2000, his obsession has been to restore Russia's status as a great power, unbound by western rules. What forces and experiences shaped him? What led him to challenge the American-led world order that has kept the peace since the end of the Cold War? To explain is not to justify. Putin's regime is dark. He pursues his goals relentlessly by whatever means he thinks fit. But on closer examination, much of what we think we know about him turns out to rest on half-truths. This book is as close as we will come to understanding Russia's ruler. It also makes us revise long-held assumptions about the course of global politics since the end of the Cold War"--Publisher's description

The man who changed the course of modern France In 1981, François Mitterrand became France's first popularly elected socialist president. By the time he completed his mandate, he had led the country for 14 years, longer than any other French head of state in modern times. Mitterrand mirrored France in all its imperfections and tragedies, its cowardice and glory, its weakness and its strength. In the wake of the Observatory affair (in which he orchestrated his own assassination attempt), his secretiveness and mistrust grew more pronounced, especially when details of a second family came to light; he was a mixture of "Machiavelli, Don Corleone, Casanova and the Little Prince," said his doctor. During the German occupation, Mitterrand hedged his bets by joining Petain's Vichy government. Later in 1943, under the nom de guerre of Morland (and 30 other aliases), Mitterrand quit Vichy for the Resistance and a paramilitary organization. He changed the ground rules of French social and political debate in ways more far-reaching and fundamental than any other modern leader before him, helping set the agenda for France and Europe for generations to come. Philip Short's A Taste for Intrigue will fill the gap and become the standard against which all other Mitterrand biographies are set.

Aesthete, sensualist, bookworm, politician of Machiavellian cunning: Fran�ois Mitterrand was a man of exceptional gifts and exceptional flaws who, during his fourteen years as President, strove to drag his tradition-bound and change-averse country into the modern world.As a statesman and as a human being, he was the incarnation of the mercurial, contrarian France which Britain and America find so perennially frustrating. He embodied the ambiguities and the contradictions of a nation whose modern identity is founded on a stubborn refusal to fit into the Anglo-American scheme of things. Yet he changed France more profoundly than any of his recent predecessors, arguably including even his great rival, Charles de Gaulle.During the war he was both the leader of a resistance movement and decorated for services to the collaborationist regime in Vichy. After flirting with the far Right, he entered parliament with the backing of conservatives and the Catholic Church before becoming the undisputed leader of the Left. As President he brought the French Communists into the government the better to destroy them. And all the while he managed to find time for an extraordinarily complicated private life.This is a human as much as a political biography, and a captivating portrait of a life that mirrored Mitterrand's times.

A gripping and definitive portrait of the man who headed one of the most enigmatic and terrifying regimes of modern times. This powerful biography reveals that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia were not a one-off aberration but instead grew out of a darkness of the soul common to all peoples.

Vladimir Putin je pro Západ vyvrhelem. Jako jediný mezi světovými vůdci má moc proměnit Spojené státy a Evropu v jaderný popel a a také hrozí, že tak učiní. Napadá své sousedy, vměšuje se do západních voleb a nařizuje vraždy v Rusku i mimo něj. Režim, v jehož čele stojí, je autokratický a zkorumpovaný, přesto ho většina Rusů nadále podporuje. Obsáhlá biografie Philipa Shorta zkoumá osobnost záhadného a bezohledného ruského vůdce do nebývalé hloubky a boří mnohé z našich předsudků o Putinově Rusku...

Była to najbardziej radykalna rewolucja w dziejach ludzkości. W ciągu zaledwie kilku lat unicestwiła jedną czwartą ludności Kambodży – zwanej wówczas Demokratyczną Kampuczą – i wprowadziła w życie idee, które były zbyt skrajne dla wszystkich wcześniejszych reżimów. Celem Czerwonych Khmerów stała się likwidacja wszelkich przejawów indywidualności, zaprzeczenie wszystkiego, co ludzkie. Realizacji utopijnego celu służyła nie tylko hekatomba ofiar, ale również – a może przede wszystkim – wprost niewyobrażalne okrucieństwo, które zmieniło w koszmar zarówno życie, jak i śmierć mieszkańców Demokratycznej Kampuczy. Szaleństwo, w jakim pogrążyła się Kambodża, było dziełem jednego człowieka, występującego pod pseudonimem Pol Pot, przywódcy Czerwonych Khmerów, nauczyciela, a niegdyś studenta jednej z paryskich uczelni. Dlaczego rewolucja Czerwonych Khmerów posunęła się do niepojętej skrajności? Dlaczego tak wielu kambodżańskich intelektualistów zaangażowało się ślepo w ruch, który okazał się tak upiorny? Dlaczego wreszcie wielu dawnych działaczy Czerwonych Khmerów, wykształconych, myślących ludzi, w tym wielu takich, których krewnych zgładzono pod rządami Pol Pota, wciąż utrzymuje, że był on wielkim patriotą, a jego zasługi usprawiedliwiają winy? W swojej fascynującej książce „Pol Pot. Pola śmierci” Philip Short próbuje odpowiedzieć na te wszystkie pytania. Zbierając informacje do tej książki, autor wykonał tytaniczną pracę, której rezultat to wielki i bardzo ważny krok naprzód na drodze do zrozumienia kambodżańskiej tragedii. „The Guardian” Philip Short przez ponad dwadzieścia pięć lat był zagranicznym korespondentem „The Times”, „The Economist” i BBC na Dalekim Wschodzie. Jest autorem biografii Mao Zedonga. Przebywał w Kambodży w latach siedemdziesiątych i na początku osiemdziesiątych.