Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 after a long civil war in Rhodesia. The white minority government had become an international outcast after refusing to give in to the inevitability of black majority rule, and finally the defiant white Prime Minister Ian Smith was forced to step down. Initially admired as the leader of one of Africa's emerging nations, Mugabe encouraged Zimbabwe's economic and social development, promising reconciliation between blacks and whites. But as Martin Meredith shows in this history of Africa's most notorious dictator, from the beginning, Mugabe was sacrificing his purported ideals - and Zimbabwe's potential - to the goal of extending and cementing his autocratic leadership. Over time, Mugabe has become ever more despotic, and seemingly less interested in the welfare of his people, treating Zimbabwe's wealth and resources as spoils of war for his inner circle. In recent years, he has unleashed a reign of terror and corruption in his country. Like the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Zimbabwe has been on a steady slide to disaster. In Mugabe , Martin Meredith tells the whole story in detail. As the 2008 elections approach the book, (first published in 2002), is now substantially revised to bring the story right up to date. A riveting and tragic political story, it is an essential text for understanding today's Africa.

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After a long civil war in Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980, and in this history of Mugabes rule, the author chronicles how Mugabe has become ever more dictatorial, and seemingly less and less interested in the welfare of his people, for this riveting and tragic political story.

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