I took a class at work that's directed at management but they opened it to the engineers. It was called "the emotionally intelligent manager".
In my company five years ago there were a lot of managers who would berate their employees like you said in your post and work them to death. This resulted in talented employees who were dedicated to their work leaving the company in droves so someone high up decided that change was needed. After training the managers that the yelling and berating that was commonplace in the 1990's doesn't work, my company began to retain people a little better. The class was a real eye opener to me and I've applied what I learned to my everyday interaction with people and it's benefited me a great deal.
I worked under a tyrannical manager my first few years at the company and one month I worked 300 hours (3 weeks at 80 hrs per week then a 60 hour week). I got sick of it and transferred to another plant in the same company and I'm much happier now. My current management does some silly things but they're nice and they respect and appreciate their employees which is very comforting.
I'm surprised that in this day and age people think they can get the best out of their staff by berating and belittling them. I'm glad you managed to get away from your tyrannical manager and it's the course of action I recommend if in a similar situation.