When the oil-rich Kingdom of Libya descended into corruption & irresolution, a young Libyan army officer named Muammar Gaddafi seized power in a brilliant coup on 1 September 1969. Under his rule Libya became a pariah state, harbouring terrorists from nearly every dissident group in the world & accumulating an enormous arsenal of lethal weaponry. Gaddafi was autocratic & cruel, & his people finally rose up against him in February 2011. But how did he survive for so long? In this book, John Oakes traces Libya`s colourful history & details the events which shaped Gaddafi`s personality, the influences which moulded his career, the security apparatus which kept him in power & the human rights violations he committed. It is a story of Roman legions, Barbary pirates, slave traders, camel caravans & Ottoman Beys; & of Italian colonists, Bedouin tribes, Texan oil barons, the Lockerbie disaster & mass murder in the Abu Salim jail. Foremost, it is the story of the human cost of freeing Libya from Gaddafi.