Twilight of Democracy - Anne Applebaum

Twilight of Democracy

By Anne Applebaum

  • Release Date: 2020-07-21
  • Genre: Political Science
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 172 Ratings

Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document ... is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism.


From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. Elegantly written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic values.

Reviews

  • Meh

    3
    By ljufgy
    A decent read but offers no real analysis. This book has some originality scattered here and there but is overall nothing new to say that hasn’t already been said. Her talks about the coronavirus also seem forced.
  • Fantastic

    5
    By doctiloquus
    A cogent meditation on authoritarian threats to the liberal democracies of the world, circa 2020 — one that I couldn’t put down. Highly recommended.
  • Twilight of Democracy

    1
    By x@w$q
    Applebaum rant against conservatism and people she disdains. A narcissists’ reflection on her imagined place among the so-called intelligentsia. A trope devoid facts or full context.

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