Twilight of Democracy

The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

By: Anne Applebaum

Narrated by: Anne Applebaum

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2020 Anne Applebaum (P)2020 Random House Audio

Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them

This book gives you a close up look at how people that once suffered under Fascist, Communist or Dictatorial regimes and gained freedom of government based on hodge podge of western values have (often willingly) slipped into the iron grip of a powerfully manipulative few.

While autocrats have learned to streamline and soften the blow with their deluge of alternative facts churned through modern public relations operations. Everyday citizens, talented and educated are replaced by loyalists without experience and face a dangerously perilous future for themselves and their families. Every person eventually reaches a crossroad: Tow the party or autocrat line no matter how absurd or contradictory to what may have been said days before or risk losing everything.

The book tells the tale of those who have been through what some in the west are only experiencing now for the first time. It is a warning that should not be taken lightly.

The book shows that once momentum of an ideologue begins, the competence or lack thereof in its leader means far less to the average person then the opportunity for benefits, status and sense of belonging to something greater then themselves (real or perceived) that rains down on its loudest and most rabid supporters.

Excellent!

Very timely book during election 2020. It's interesting how systems of government cycle through over the years.

Masterful blend of the personal and political

A moving account of the “progression” of illiberal governments. The author uses her intimate knowledge of Eastern Europe to inform her reporting, but is scrupulously fair. Applebaum is an old-school journalist which I fear is a dying breed in the age of click-bait. One caveat: she says that although both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals can be drawn to authoritarianism (a dislike of complexity, an unwillingness to debate, etc) it is only on the right that has embraced authoritarian regimes. I think the jury is still out. But her book is no less valuable because she focuses on her area of expertise. If anything it makes it stronger.

Note: Applebaum speaks as skillfully and persuasively as she writes. Discerning listeners will be glad she chose to narrate her own book.

A personal dissection of authoritarian populism

I am glad Applebaum narrated her own text elucidating the trends on the right, from Poland to Hungary, Spain to Britain and the US. I would have added a little nuance to Trump's statements about FBI since abuses from that corner in 2016-17 complicate the point she ably makes: the danger of the authoritarian trend.

Important - read this book!

A great review of where we are and how we got here. In looking at the world rather than just US politics you see the pattern emerging and perhaps the importance of this moment.

A riveting account from her first-hand experience..,

...which I happened to witness (and suffer intimately) from my own vantage points as a diplomat and a father. By all means buy this book, spread the word shared so eloquently by the author in her audiobook version. Encourage discussion of its main points. The last thing we need in these challenging times of rapid change is to revert to extremisms of any form, much less from a selfish and self righteous right proposing positions poorly based on fact and rather grounded on destructive emotions.

Must read

Scary but enlightening. Everyone should read this. I’ve always heard “it can’t happen here” but it really can.

Will the sun rise again on the other side?

Anne does a great job depicting what authoritarian regimes can and do look like, drawing quite a bit on her personal experience. She does a particularly good job showing how people can rationalize their choices or simply lie to themselves about what they do or how they support. It is this compromise (the “seductive lure”) that provides authoritarian types the runway to gather more and more power, sometimes by legal means, often not. Ultimately, the question for such societies is whether they are being overtaken by a rogue regime, or are they simply a reflection of what the society itself has become. I like to think that it is the former, but it seems the jury is still out on that one.

An amazing book

Anne Applebaum’s ability to think clearly is almost matched by her ability to write as well, or better than any author I have read. She brings the nature of the issues, the polarization of western societies into understandable context. I thank her for this amazing book

Enlightening

A necessary book for our times, it’s at once terrifying and comforting. Puts the moment we’re in in historical context, and explains how today’s extremist authoritarian leanings crept into folks we formerly knew as moderates… even friends. It also underscores how support of authoritarianism is not exclusive to the right or the left, an important reminder.