Amos Barshad

No One Man Should Have All That Power is a headlong race through the history of Rasputinism–the power of being the power behind the “throne” in government, music, film, and sports. Amos Barshad identifies seven principles of a Rasputin. They control others, their control is controversial, eliciting enemies. They have a larger personal agenda. They control only a few, powerful people. They work behind the scenes and lack the ability to carry out their plans on their own.

With a breezy wit, Barshad races through the real Rasputin, the various Rasputins of popular culture and history, and circles back to the historic Rasputin once again, this time going beyond the history written by his murderer, to a more nuanced and true history. Perhaps even Rasputin is no Rasputin.

No One Man Should Have All That Power is an enjoyable overview of the various people who have found power through other people’s talents and power. This makes perfect sense with the wannabes of politics and government. However, when he suggests that great editors, directors, or music producers are Rasputins, that they are the power “behind” the throne, I think he misunderstands those art forms. Who is more powerful than a great director. Stanley Kubrick was a greater power and will be known farther into the future than Tom Cruise, no matter how much he got Cruise to do for him. Great music producers put the artist with the song and the musicians that produce magic the singers cannot achieve on their own. And editing is an art form, it is not proofreading, it goes far beyond that. Gordon Lish made more than one writer better than he was. These people were artists in their own right, powers on their own particular thrones.

Even though I thought his thesis was little more than a good hook to hang a story on and a great excuse to travel and interview people, I enjoyed his breezy style and his stories of the manipulative and their victims. He suggests no one who wants to be Rasputin can succeed with Trump, suggesting no one can manipulate him long term. He looks at Kushner and Bannon, but he really should have looked Mick Mulvaney. He does not make the mistake of claiming to control Trump, but he controls Trump. I thought the book was enjoyable, but scratching the surface, looking at the obvious, and missing the real thing.

No One Man Should Have All That Power will be released April 9th. I received a copy from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

No One Man Should Have All That Power at Abrams Books
Amos Barshad author site

★★★★
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