
Pol Pot
The history of a nightmare
Philip Short(Author)
John Murray Publishers Ltd
Published on 11. October 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
672 pages
978-0-7195-6678-3 (ISBN)
Description
The man the world knew as Pol Pot headed one of the most enigmatic and terrifying regimes of modern times. In the three-and-a-half years of his rule in Cambodia, 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. Philip Short has spent four years travelling the length and breadth of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives from China, Russia and Vietnam, as well as Cambodia itself. 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, as Philip Short traces Pol Pot's life from altruistic youth to become one of the twentieth century's most egregious political monsters.
Reviews / Votes
'The first full biography of the man who led Cambodia into darkness.' - Sue Baker -- Publishing News 20050304 '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 20050301 'Short succeeds in building a complete, compelling portrait of the man' -- Herald 20050709 'Philip Short! has done a spectacularly efficient job of describing what happened, and how' -- Economist 20041106 'Riveting' -- Scotsman 20041106 'Short has created a terrifying narrative of destruction.' -- Daily Telegraph 20041106 'Brilliantly detailed' -- Sunday Herald 20041031 'The result is a searching account' -- Sunday Times 20050814 'Exhaustive and authoritative' -- Times Literary Supplement 20050401More details
Edition
Airside/Export ed
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
16pp
Dimensions
Height: 41 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 235 mm
Weight
904 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7195-6678-3 (9780719566783)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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.