Power

If you were suddenly in a position of power, would you resist the urge to line your pockets or take revenge on your enemies? Is it true that power corrupts? Are people born as tyrants or do they become tyrants? Are embezzlers and cops who murder prisoners the result of a broken system, or are they just bad people? These and many other questions are asked by political scientist Brian Klaas, who has interviewed more than five hundred influential people in his career. They included presidents, rebels, dictators and philanthropists. So he was interested in what power is, who gets it and what happens after it is seized. Could it be that power attracts a certain type of people and it is precisely those who should not have it? And more importantly, why are the rest of us actually putting it in their hands? Interesting findings include, for example, that a candidate's appearance influences our decision in an election more than we admit. Many despots are charming in person and one easily succumbs to their charisma. Some people, on the contrary, are not attracted to power at all and others are attracted to it by psychopathic impulses. Either way, would we have done the same thing in their place under certain circumstances? They said about the title "Entertaining and engaging... Klaas describes in a deft literary hand how positions offering power and opportunities for enrichment contain incentives that attract the wrong kind of people. " -Washington Post "A fascinating and entertaining read...Klaas has remarkable insights, presents impeccable science in an accessible way, and tells great stories-all with great writing and wonderfully venomous humor. "-Robert Sapolsky, New York Times best-selling author