Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State: Culture: mensvogue.com

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Iron Fists: Steven Heller's new book, Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State explains why Hitler never took a bad picture, Mussolini went shirtless, Lenin loved lettering, and Mao called it a party. The answer: propaganda and strategic branding — two things manipulated to perfection by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Russia, and Communist China and brought to light by Heller through colorful reproductions of dictatorial advertisements, pamphlets, paintings, and sculpture. One such work depicts Mussolini as Julius Caesar. And while both historic figures did a lot with marble, Benito looks definitively worse in a laurel leaf crown. By Mickey Stanley; Iron Fists: Branding the 20th–Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller. Published by Phaidon Press, 2008, phaidon.com.

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The Nazis (1932)

This campaign poster for the March 1932 presidential election shows Hitler dressed in a suit, rather than his party uniform, saying, "We are taking the fate of the nation in our hands!" At the bottom, "Hitler becomes Reich President."