Twilight of Democracy

The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

De: Anne Applebaum

Narrado por: Anne Applebaum

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The book to buy for insight into what Trump's rise and rule really mean—here and abroad—for democracy in our time."
—Ron Elving, NPR

“Applebaum’s historical expertise and knowledge of contemporary Europe and the United States illuminate what is eternal and distinctive about the political perils facing us today . . . Twilight of Democracy offers many lessons on the long-standing struggle between democracy and dictatorship. But perhaps the most important is how fragile democracy is: Its survival depends on choices made every day by elites and ordinary people.”
—Sheri Berman, Washington Post

“An often sobering, sometimes shocking, but never despairing account of the rise of authoritarianism in the West.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Anne Applebaum is a leading historian of communism and a penetrating investigator of contemporary politics. Here she sets her sights on the big question, one with which she herself has been deeply engaged in both Europe and America: How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document, written with urgency, intelligence, and understanding, is her answer.”
—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

“Friendships torn. Ideals betrayed. Alliances broken. In this, her most personal book, a great historian explains why so many of those who won the battles for democracy or have spent their lives proclaiming its values are now succumbing to liars, thugs, and crooks. Analysis, reportage, and memoir, Twilight of Democracy fearlessly tells the shameful story of a political generation gone bad.”
—David Frum, author of Trumpocracy and Trumpocalypse

“Critically important for its muscular, oppositionist attack on the new right from within conservative ranks—and for the well-documented warning it embodies. Applebaum’s views are especially welcome because she is a deliberate thinker and astute observer rather than just the latest pundit or politico . . . A knowledgeable, rational, necessarily dark take on dark realities.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"In crisp, elegant prose . . . [Applebaum] describes the emotional power of conspiracy theories and of simple narratives that encourage national unity against a common enemy, even if that enemy is often more imagined than real."
—Christian Science Monitor

"Thought-provoking and gracefully written."
—Gabriel Schoenfeld, The American Interest

Amazing book

A must read for our times. Please read and pass it on to your friends

hope to horror show.

with a myriad of detail and personal anecdote the author details the unraveling of hope for a progressive free world into a xenophobic megalomaniacal world of cynical opportunists and snake oil salesmen. we grow up, as we see it was ever thus. and yet her integrity, and the many others she names cannot extinguish all hope. very quick read. profound. for Americans fills in the margins of our own struggle.

Must Read

Chapter 5 should be required reading in H.S. history. Right next to civics and the media's influence on society.

An great argument for sanity

I think the author did a very good job in encapsulating the problem we are seeing internationally with false negatives, polarization and the dangers of the alt right. The future is unclear and the author clarified the problem while highlighting the importance of protecting long-standing institutions as well as democracy itself.

The ties that bind

The ultimate tie that binds is a commitment to respect for fundamental rights and checks and balances aka real democracy. That’s what Applebaum’s personal and intellectual journey reveals. Those who hide behind the banner of democracy, nationalism and patriotism are too often really authoritarians. Recognizing this offers hope.