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 liberalism and charts how they use conspiracy theory political
polarization social media and nostalgia to change their societies--
