THE TITANS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Profiles of eight “supremely significant” male world leaders, from virtuous to genocidal.

Mandelbaum, author of The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth, The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy, and other books of global history, writes that these men changed the world during the 20th century—largely the first half, a disastrous period featuring history’s two most destructive wars and its worst economic depression. Since this is political history, beginning with Woodrow Wilson is reasonable. His idealistic vision of a world in which democracy and self-determination replace power politics failed after World War I, but it caught on after 1945—peaking during the Cold War but steadily receding since. The remaining seven choices are unsurprising. Readers may grumble at Stalin’s absence, but Mandelbaum makes a convincing case that Lenin deserves priority for leading an obscure splinter party to power in the collapsing Russian empire and creating the institutions and vicious mindset that Stalin inherited. Most readers will agree with the inclusion of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Mao Zedong. Gandhi did more than any individual to make India a nation and launched the worldwide collapse of colonialism following World War II. David Ben-Gurion was the central figure in the creation of Israel, which still plays an outsize role in world affairs. History buffs will encounter little new information but enjoy the insights of a fine historian. Older readers will experience the uneasy sensation that there is less than meets the eye in the great victory of WWII. Mandelbaum casts a gimlet eye on all his subjects. The five democratic leaders come off better than Lenin, Hitler, and Mao, but he does not deny the increasing appeal of hyperpatriotic autocrats who are now taking power around the world—legally, the author reminds us, just as Hitler did.

Often perceptive but never groundbreaking.