{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T232332Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784972142?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1784972142","authors":["Paul Kenyon"],"book_id":"9781784972141","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/dictatorland-1784972142","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781784972141.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","description":"A Financial Times Book of the Year 'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express 'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times 'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book , and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business. And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781784972141","publication_date":"20190601","publisher":"Bloomsbury USA","slug":"dictatorland","subtitle":"The Men Who Stole Africa","title":"Dictatorland"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central African History","score":0.7939,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East African History","score":0.7746,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern African History","score":0.7693,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central African History","score":0.7939,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"East African History","score":0.7746,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern African History","score":0.7693,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001000","confidence_band":"high","label":"African History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037070","confidence_band":"high","label":"20th-Century History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL053000","confidence_band":"high","label":"African Politics","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Central African History","score":0.7939,"slug":"central-african-history"},{"label":"East African History","score":0.7746,"slug":"east-african-history"},{"label":"Southern African History","score":0.7693,"slug":"southern-african-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Central African History","Good for fans of History","Good for readers who enjoy Central African History and East African History."],"related_lists":[{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his001040-africa-south-general","title":"Africa South General Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his001040-africa-south-general"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Patricia Crisafulli","Andrea Redmond"],"book_id":"9781137278951","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781137278951.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.8005,"title":"Rwanda, Inc.: How a Devastated Nation Became an Economic Model for the Developing World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781137278951"},{"authors":["Matthias Häussler"],"book_id":"9781805391517","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781805391517.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.6925,"title":"The Herero Genocide","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781805391517"},{"authors":["Adam Hochschild"],"book_id":"9780358212508","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780358212508.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":14.8535,"title":"King Leopold's Ghost","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780358212508"},{"authors":["Ernesto Che Guevara","Che Guevara Studies Center","Gabriel García Márquez","Aleida Guevara"],"book_id":"9781644210727","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781644210727.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":14.4765,"title":"Congo Diary","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781644210727"},{"authors":["Edward H. 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