Twilight of Democracy : : the Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Applebaum, Anne
On Shelf At: Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Applebaum, Anne	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Applebaum, Anne	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Politics / Applebaum, Anne	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024

New Year's Eve -- How demagogues win -- The future of nostalgia -- Cascades of falsehood -- Prairie fire -- The unending of history.
"A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist explains, with electrifying clarity, why some of her contemporaries have abandoned liberal democratic ideals in favor of strongman cults, nationalist movements, or one-party states. Across the world today, from the U.S. to Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege while different forms of authoritarianism are on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum argues that we should not be surprised by this change: There is an inherent appeal to political systems with radically simple beliefs, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. People are not just ideological, she contends in this captivating extended essay; they are also practical, pragmatic, opportunist. The authoritarian and nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths to wealth or power for their adherents. Describing politicians, journalists, intellectuals, and others who have abandoned democratic ideals in the UK, U.S., Spain, Poland, and Hungary, Applebaum reveals the patterns that link the new advocates of illiberalism and charts how they use conspiracy theory, political polarization, social media, and nostalgia to change their societies"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Accessible political read, recommend for book clubs submitted by mowjac on May 16, 2021, 5:36pm Applebaum's analysis of modern democracy focuses mostly on new democracies in Eastern Europe: Poland and Hungary and older democracies in Britain & Spain. While I enjoyed her analysis, I would combine reading this with Gilligan and Richards "The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistant and Democracy's Future" for a more in-depth and thorough look at democracy and authoritarianism.

Meh submitted by emroon on July 12, 2023, 8:59am It really felt to me like this book was by elites, about elites, and for elites. The author seemed to really focus on the present moment as if it was an abnormality from the past. She longed for the days of conservative leaders like Reagan and Thatcher while ignoring the choices, and social factors that have been brewing for decades that have led to this moment. It was not an in-depth history like I had hoped. It was more a woman who has worked in international political circles complaining about her friends changing political outlooks.