The news from Libya is bound to spark a flood of literature about Gaddafi, Libya and the Arab Spring in general. Here is a selection of published books and forthcoming releases on the subject:
Gaddafi’s most famous work is The Green Book, which details his political philosophy. Its subjects range from breastfeeding to racial supremacy, and it has been variously described as “insane” and “surreal gibberish”. It may appear to be a psychotic symphony, but, as Andrew Roberts has noted in the Daily Beast, irrationality was Gaddafi’s leitmotif and it became an agency of his power. Christopher Hitchens touches on this theme when discussing the unstable nature of tyranny in his autobiography Hitch-22.
Veteran Middle East correspondent Ronald Payne wrote a piece for Coffee House back in February recalling his interviews with the then new and dashing leader of Libya (pictured together above).
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