The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, published in 1978, is Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Ryszard Kapuściński

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsknow in Belarusin the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, into poverty: he would say later that...

's analysis of the decline and fall of Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. In 1974, while the Ethiopian Army

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 was still busy consolidating power, Kapuściński "traveled to Ethiopia to seek out and interview Selassie's servants and closest associates on how the Emperor had ruled and why he fell." http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0679722033 In large part, the book is a study of the workings of a royal court

Royal court

Royal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:* The Royal Court , Timbaland's production company*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court...

.

The Throne

Section one focuses on the constitution of Emperor Haile Selassie's imperial court.

It's Coming, It's Coming

Section two focuses on the attempted coup led by Germame Neway on December 13, 1960, and its repercussions.

The Collapse

This section focuses on the ultimate downfall of Selassie, featuring an account by his valet, who was the last remaining servant in the Emperor's court. This is followed by two short newspaper articles on the Emperor's last few years of life, which show that he still believed himself to be the true leader of Ethiopia.

External links

• Review of Kapuściński by John Ryle for the Times Literary Supplement (27 July 2001)