Pol Pot
The History of a Nightmare
Published on 6. June 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
560 pages
978-0-7195-6569-4 (ISBN)
Description
Pol Pot was an idealistic, reclusive figure with great charisma and personal charm. He initiated a revolution whose radical egalitarianism exceeded any other in history. But in the process, Cambodia desended into madness and his name became a byword for oppression.
In the three-and-a-half years of his rule, more than a million people, a fifth of Cambodia's population, were executed or died from hunger and disease. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which absolute obedience was enforced on the 'killing fields'.
Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Philip Short, the biographer of Mao, has spent four years travelling the length of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives. Here, the former Khmer Rouge Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of lesser figures speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives.
In the three-and-a-half years of his rule, more than a million people, a fifth of Cambodia's population, were executed or died from hunger and disease. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which absolute obedience was enforced on the 'killing fields'.
Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Philip Short, the biographer of Mao, has spent four years travelling the length of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives. Here, the former Khmer Rouge Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of lesser figures speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives.
Reviews / Votes
An extraordinary and brilliant book ... Like a clever and determined detective, Short has exposed the secrets, knitting together a story which it once seemed would never be told. The result is horrifying, but it must be read. * Scotland on Sunday * A superb, chilling, yet human portrait of a monster * Simon Sebag Montefiore, Daily Telegraph * A model of research ... an intelligent and compassionate account of the Cambodian nightmare * Spectator * His weighty book, which is as much a history of modern Cambodia as a biography of the man who shaped it, [is written with] with great discretion and sensitivity ... As well as a model of research, this is an intelligent and compassionate account of the Cambodian nightmare. * The Spectator * 'The first full biography of the man who led Cambodia into darkness.' - Sue Baker * Publishing News * Like a clever and determined detective, Short has exposed the secrets ... The result is horrifying, but it must be read * Scotland on Sunday * Short has written the definitive account of the nightmarish regime of 1975-1978, responsible for the deaths of some 1.5 million Cambodians. * Contemporary Review * Brings clear thinking to the big questions of blame * Sunday Times * Short succeeds in building a complete, compelling portrait of the man * Herald * Comprehensive and eloquent biography of a monster * Literary Review * Short unerringly broadens the inquiry to the point where serious history begins, and serious judgements can be made * Financial Times * Short's brilliantly detailed account is a salutary one * Sunday Herald * Riveting * Scotsman * Philip Short has done a spectacularly efficient job of describing what happened, and how * Economist * Exhaustive and authoritative * Times Literary Supplement * Short has made a Herculean effort to reconstruct the past. * Telegraph, Robert Colville. * The result is a searching account * Sunday Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
24 pages of b/w
Dimensions
Height: 199 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 37 mm
Weight
416 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7195-6569-4 (9780719565694)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2013
John Murray Learning
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Philip Short was for many years a foreign correspondent for the BBC, and now lives and writes in southern France. He first encountered Pol Pot in Beijing in 1977. His last book, Mao: A Life, has been hailed as the definitive biography of the founder of modern China.