A FINANCIAL TIMES ECONOMIST AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020'The most important
non-fiction book of the year' David Hare In the years just before and after the fall of the
Berlin Wall people from across the political spectrum in Europe and America celebrated a great
achievement felt a common purpose and very often forged personal friendships. Yet over the
following decades the euphoria evaporated the common purpose and centre ground gradually
disappeared extremism rose once more and eventually - as this book compellingly relates - the
relationships soured too. Anne Applebaum traces this history in an unfamiliar way looking at
the trajectories of individuals caught up in the public events of the last three decades. When
politics becomes polarized which side do you back? If you are a journalist an intellectual a
civic leader how do you deal with the re-emergence of authoritarian or nationalist ideas in
your country? When your leaders appropriate history or pedal conspiracies or eviscerate the
media and the judiciary do you go along with it? Twilight of Democracy is an essay that
combines the personal and the political in an original way and brings a fresh understanding to
the dynamics of public life in Europe and America both now and in the recent past.
