How to Become a Tyrant
Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.
- 2021-2021
- 1 season
- Netflix
- Documentary, Action & Adventure
- TV-14
Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2021
Episode 1
Seize Power
Fri, Jul 9, 2021 30 mins
Interested in becoming a tyrant? There are rules, and the playbook for a rise to dictatorship starts with one of history's most brutal: Adolf Hitler.
Episode 2
Crush Your Rivals
27 mins
You've secured your place at the top, but maintaining power means watching your back. Nobody did that better or more ruthlessly than Saddam Hussein.
Episode 3
Reign Through Terror
27 mins
When keeping your population under control, is it better to be loved or feared? Idi Amin certainly thought he knew the right answer to that question.
Episode 4
Control the Truth
26 mins
Through public relations spin, revisionist history and censorship. Soviet autocrat Joseph Stalin found a certain flexibility with the truth useful.
Episode 5
Create a New Society
25 mins
Free speech? Right to assembly? Rebel-turned-dictator Muammar Gaddafi realized that civil liberties had to go when reshaping society. But he got soft.
Episode 6
Rule Forever
29 mins
Seizing power is hard, but keeping it is harder. In North Korea, the Kim dynasty unlocked the secret to ruling forever: They declared themselves gods.
