Rising to a great challenge in this remarkable study, Bruce Pauley compares the origins, development, and demise of all three forms of European totalitarianism, explaining why the old regimes that preceded the dictatorships failed, how the totalitarian movements arose, and how they captured, consolidated, and eventually plummeted from power. Although its vivid portraits of the dictators' youths, early careers, relationships with women, management styles, and cults of personality - that they and their propaganda machines crafted - are certain to fascinate all readers, this is much more than a triple biography; it is a unique, interpretative comparison of the economics, culture, education, and health-care systems of all three dictatorships. While more conventional subjects such as diplomacy and war are by no means neglected, Professor Pauley goes further to explore the regimes' treatment of women, young people, and their terroristic oppression of religious institutions and minorities.