Riccardo Orizio is the author of the book Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators. He interviewed deposed dictators who have not apologized for their crimes and weren’t rehabilitated. They were Uganda’s Idi Amin, Haiti’s “Baby Doc” Duvalier, Ethiopia’s Mengistu and others. The interview is conducted by Fresh Air guest host Dave Davies.
Listen to the interview (34:00)
Your assignment is to type an essay which:
1. Analyzes the objectives and methods of Idi Amin’s dictatorial rule in Uganda (1971 – 1979)
2. Analyzes the extent to which his rule is accurately depicted in Kevin Macdonald’s “The Last King of Scotland”.
Please bear in mind that you are not simply writing a film review. In order to write this essay, please use and cite the following sources:
Wikipedia: An Introduction to Amin
Amin’s Obituary from the New York Times
Idi Amin Quotes from the BBC
A Life in Pictures: Idi Amin from the BBC
The Internet Movie Database (for film details and reviews)
More on Amin: A Collection of Articles on Amin from Uganda Mission
Here is my lecture on the Great Migration & Harlem Renaissance
Enjoy
Frederick Lewis Allen was the editor of Harper’s Magazine and also notable as an American historian of the first half of the twentieth century. His specialty was writing about what was at the time recent and popular history. His best-known books were Only Yesterday (1931), a book chronicling American life in the 1920s, and Since Yesterday (1940), which covered the 1930s.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1912 and received his Masters in 1913. He taught at Harvard briefly thereafter before becoming assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1914, and then managing editor of The Century in 1916. He began working for Harper’s in 1923, becoming editor-in-chief in 1941, a position he held until shortly before his death. His wife, Dorothy Penrose Allen, died just prior to the publication of Only Yesterday.
Allen’s popularity coincided with increased interest in history among the book-buying public of the 1920s and 1930s. This interest was met, not by the university-employed historian, but by an amateur historian writing in his free time.
His masterpiece, Only Yesterday, can be read in its entirety courtesy of University of Virginia.
You are assigned to read Chapter Five, A Revolution in Morals and Manners
If you would like to propose a relevant extra credit project in lieu of one of those provided you may do so and I will approve, reject or modify your proposal.
This 1920’s Extra Credit Assignment offers a potential of 10 points. All products will be graded out of 10 possible points. Do your best and have fun.