The Rise of the Iron Men

I really enjoyed this. I'm not so worldly wise as I once was. In fact I'm rather out of touch these days, as I don't watch news or read papers or anything like that any more. I haven't done for years. So when I find an author whose content skirts over so much in short bite-sized chunks, I'm all over it. The Iron Men:- Viktor Orbán (Hungary)- Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines)- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey)- Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil)- Narendra Modi (India)- Boris Johnson (UK)I added that list because I would have liked to have seen a list to refer back to and get the name spellings, but there wasn't a list in the synopsis or in any of the reviews. Misha Glenny's style, and the production style of this podcast, really works well for me and it has whetted my appetite to listen to more. To that end, I've added a couple of the books mentioned in these episodes and am about to listen to one now on my weekly shop – Peter Pomerantzev's [b:Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia 21413849 Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible The Surreal Heart of the New Russia Peter Pomerantsev https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407196452l/21413849.SY75.jpg 40714614] - okay, so it's not the same Pomerantzev book that was mentioned (that was [b:This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality 41717504 This Is Not Propaganda Adventures in the War Against Reality Peter Pomerantsev https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545380013l/41717504.SY75.jpg 65073585]), but I learned of that author through these podcasts. I'll come and clean and say that the only one of the six iron men I had heard of was BoJo. Well, I did say I wasn't worldly wise!

Populist world leaders are dominating headlines and creating a novel type of politics that challenges democratic values and the liberal order.
Misha Glenny, journalist and successful author of McMafia, tells the stories of six iron men. These are:
Victor Orban,
Rodrigo Duterte,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Jair Bolsonaro,
Narendra Modi, and
Boris Johnson.

They influence the media, exert economic control, appoint judges, cultivate populism and seek to undermine the very institutions which brought them into power.

It's carefully researched and comprehensive, but not overly long.

The choice of including Johnson shows how he and Cummings employ the identical methods as the more insidious dictators to achieve the same outcomes.