General Amin

(London: Faber and Faber, 1974). 8vo; original burgundy boards; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 254, incl. index; plates; maps. Dustwrapper very slightly edgeworn, and spine panel sunned; top edge of lower board scuffed; earlier owner's name signed on front free endpaper; some foxing. Good to very good condition. "The news that Dr. Milton Obote, President of Uganda, had been deposed by General Idi Amin on 25th January 1971 was greeted optimistically by many countries in the West. Since then Amin's fame has spread like wildfire as the incredulous world receives his increasingly outrageous pronouncements. But the smiling, childish image which the media have indulgently created for the figure who rose from army cook to President of a modern nation state conceals the qualities of one of the most feared dictators of this century. Even before independence, Idi Amin had acquired a record of brutality, but since coming to power ... the death toll in Uganda has mounted appallingly. ... This book is a study of the historical background to the 1971 coup, the reasons why Amin had to seize power in order to survive, and the devastating results of the take-over for Uganda." .