Day of the Assassins

Day of the Assassins is written with Burleigh’s characteristic brio, with pithy summaries of historical moments (he is brilliant on the Americans in Vietnam, for example) and full of surprising vignettes, which he handles with a commendable sang-froid.David Aaronovitch 'Book of the Week', The Times

A lively account of how political murders, from Julius Caesar onwards, have differed from most others.Daily Telegraph Top History Books of the Year

Michael Burleigh’s Day of the Assassins reminds us that political murder is as old as mankind . . . The detail, as always in Burleigh’s books, is conveyed with great brioJonathan Powell, New Statesman

One of the great pleasures of reading Burleigh, a man never afraid to speak his mind, is the matter-of-fact way in which he dissects and disposes of sacred cows . . . Burleigh’s analysis of Putin’s Russia, incidentally, is a brilliant and timely reminder of the danger of taking things at face value. Our world today is as dangerous and mixed-up as it has ever been. Luckily we have Michael Burleigh to help us make sense of it.Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday