Twilight of Democracy

The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Paperback, 400 pages

English language

Published July 21, 2020 by Random House Large Print.

ISBN:
978-0-593-21478-7
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3 stars (9 reviews)

8 editions

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2 stars

My favorite thing about this book is that it's short. Ostensibly a thematic discussion of how democracy falls to the seductive impulse of authoritarianism, it ends up feeling much more like a personal account of Appelbaum's individual experience. And it sort of sounds like she's mad that she doesn't get invited to cool salons and dinner parties any more, though that's clearly not the core message. Perhaps it's just that some of the other things I've been reading lately engage more thoroughly with the political theory, but I didn't find much more here than Appelbaum's voice. And that's not particularly appealing given her right/conservative views about say whether immigrants cause crime and steal jobs (they don't, but she thinks they do), or whether there's a crisis of free speech on college campuses due to cancel culture (there isn't, but she's worried about it). Overall, not fundamentally a bad book, but …

Review of 'Twilight of Democracy' on 'Goodreads'

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Authoritarianism appeals, simply, to people who cannot tolerate complexity





I would have never known about this book if I wasn't in a book bingo challenge that asks us to read one of Barack Obama's recommended reads of 2020. I spent the whole time reading it wondering how I had missed following this author. The book opens with the story of her New Year's Eve party in 1999. She was an American living in Poland. She is a journalist. Her husband is a leader in conservative circles in Poland. She talks about the people at that party. They were close friends. They were godparents to each other's children. Now they don't speak. Ideological differences since then have pushed them apart. Many of her former friends have gone on to support authoritarianism in Poland, the U.K., and the U.S. She and her husband are more centrist-right in their political ideas. They are …

Review of 'Twilight of Democracy' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Given the right conditions, any society can turn against democracy, says Anne Applebaum. Indeed, if history  is anything to go by, all of our societies eventually 

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