Course Description: This course will examine the speech of demagogues, dictators and extremists from centuries past to recent US elections. For millennia, religious and secular demagogues, often inspired by messianic visions, have emerged at times of acute crisis to condemn the current order and, by their words alone, win a fervent following. Some of the more successful demagogues—such as Mussolini, Hitler and Marcos—combine rhetorical skill with mass followings to seize state power and forge dictatorships that spiral slowly toward self-destruction. Others draw followers into conspiracy theories and organized cults. More recently, a surge in global populism has produced a new generation of demagogic leaders worldwide, including Bolsonaro, Modi, Putin, Kim Jong Un, Orbán, Erdogan, and Duterte. Despite enormous cultural differences, these leaders have all won power through virulent, often violent rhetoric that attacks imagined enemies and celebrates a purer people. By contrast, extremist leaders, such as Jim Jones of Jonestown and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State, have spurned state power, seeking either to smash the social order or retreat from it into dystopian communities. The course will use discussion, film, music, research, and presentations to explore these leaders and their rhetoric.