The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends

Twilight of Democracy

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.

Applebaum's reflections on the anti-democratic pandemic sweeping our world offer an extraordinary mix of personal witness and dispassionate historical analysis.... It's unlikely that anyone will ever give us more sensitive or revealing insights on this question

Heretics make the best writers. ... Applebaum can bring a candle into the darkness of the populist right ... her writing is an arsenal that stores the sharpest weapons to hand.

Applebaum's progress ...has yielded an enviable supply of raw material for her narrative. She mines her sources doggedly....Twilight of Democracy is a rather penetrating work of ethnography

Advancing her arguments with eloquence and personal testimony, Applebaum passionately decries the corrosion of liberal, open-society values in the last three decades.

written with deep insight, experience and wisdom. Definitely a very important book for understanding our troubled times and the fragility of our democracies

Anne Applebaum's Twilight of Democracy is the most important non-fiction book of the year because it asks the most urgent question: why is the right wing in the West moving so far to the right? Why is it, at this point in history, so drawn to authoritarianism? Why has it given up on democracy?'

this engrossing account ... is a political book; it is also intensely personal, and the more powerful for it.

Applebaum, long an authority on the abuses of Communist and post-Communist Eastern Europe, in her new book Twilight of Democracy is unsparing in exposing the moral bankruptcy of Trumpian Republicanism. Her sharp pen is as persuasive as any in presenting the idea of the "west" as a morally serious project-and one whose loss we may come to mourn.

A brilliant writer who sheds light on the most disturbing political phenomenon of our era: the rise of rightwing authoritarianism around the world... a cry of alarm and a call to arms.... We have been warned.

readable, eloquent and passionate ... Applebaum knows what the enemy looks like from the inside, and how it thinks. This book may only be a start. We should cherish her. I think she has a lot more she can tell us.

This richly informed book enlarges her account of the enormous peril in which the democracy we took so casually for granted now stands.

Applebaum's book asks why conservatives in the West have so willingly embraced deceipt, corruption and authoritarianism. She has answers, too.

From Brexit Britain and Donald Trump's America to the cynical politics of Poland and Hungary, she feels beset by a new chauvinist right that has no regard for rules, truth or institutions. Ms Applebaum evokes an acute sense of betrayal as people she trusted turn against her, quicker than she thought possible. Her personal story is a parable of what can happen to alliances in the absence of a common adversary, and when the hardships such enemies inflicted fade from memory.

This is an illuminating political memoir about the break-up of the political tribe that won the Cold War.

Equal parts memoir, reportage, and history, this sobering account of the roots and forms of today's authoritarianism, by one of its most accomplished observers, is meant as a warning to everyone. ... critically important for its muscular, oppositionist attack on the new right from within conservative ranks-and for the well-documented warning it embodies. The author's views are especially welcome because she is a deliberate thinker and astute observer rather than just the latest pundit or politico. In the spirit of Julien Benda, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno, Applebaum seeks to understand what makes the new right "more Bolshevik than Burkean."... A knowledgeable, rational, necessarily dark take on dark realities.

A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 
 
'How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document, written with urgency, intelligence and understanding, is her answer' Timothy Snyder 
 
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.

Stalin's War on Ukraine

Red Famine

Winner of the Duff Cooper and Lionel Gelber prizes 
 
In 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the twentieth century. With unprecedented authority and detail, Red Famine investigates how this happened, who was responsible, and what the consequences were. It is the fullest account yet published of these terrible events. 
 
The book draws on a mass of archival material and first-hand testimony only available since the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ukrainian scholars all over the world. It includes accounts of the famine by those who survived it, describing what human beings can do when driven mad by hunger. It shows how the Soviet state ruthlessly used propaganda to turn neighbours against each other in order to expunge supposedly 'anti-revolutionary' elements. It also records the actions of extraordinary individuals who did all they could to relieve the suffering. 
 
The famine was rapidly followed by an attack on Ukraine's cultural and political leadership - and then by a denial that it had ever happened at all. Census reports were falsified and memory suppressed. Some western journalists shamelessly swallowed the Soviet line; others bravely rejected it, and were undermined and harassed. The Soviet authorities were determined not only that Ukraine should abandon its national aspirations, but that the country's true history should be buried along with its millions of victims. Red Famine, a triumph of scholarship and human sympathy, is a milestone in the recovery of those memories and that history. At a moment of crisis between Russia and Ukraine, it also shows how far the present is shaped by the past.

Meticulously researched, blisteringly written

Compelling in its detail and in its empathy

Her account will surely become the standard treatment of one of history's great political atrocities

An exhaustive, authoritative and eloquent book. She deals with questions that have hitherto lacked unequivocal answers

Anne Applebaum is the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize, and Iron Curtain, which in 2013 won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature and the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.

Across the Borderlands of Europe

Between East and West

A vivid and human glimpse into Europe's borderlands as they emerged from Soviet rule - back in print after nearly 20 years 
 
'In this superb book, in which one senses the spirit of Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz, the dramatic world of the Eastern borderlands comes to life' Ryszard Kapuscinski 
 
As Europe's borderlands emerged from Soviet rule, Anne Applebaum travelled from the Baltic to the Black Sea, through Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and the Carpathian mountains. Rich in vivid characters and stories of tragedy and survival, Between East and West illuminates the soul of a place, and the secret history of its people. 
 
'A beautifully written and thought-provoking account of a journey along Europe's forgotten edge' Timothy Garton Ash 
 
'A vivid and penetrating assessment of the lands between the Baltic and the Black Sea in all their drama and desolation . . . a wise and useful book' Robert Conquest 
 
'Combines the excitement of a well-written and adventurous travelogue with sophisticated reportage' Norman Davies 
 
'You will be totally absorbed' Norman Stone 
 
Anne Applebaum is a historian and journalist, a regular columnist for the Washington Post and Slate, and the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, and Iron Curtain, which in 2013 won the Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature and the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. She is the Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London, and she divides her time between Britain and Poland, where her husband, Radek Sikorski, serves as Foreign Minister.

In this superb book, in which one senses the spirit of Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz, the dramatic world of the Eastern borderlands comes to life

A vivid and penetrating assessment of the lands between the Baltic and the Black Sea in all their drama and desolation . . . A wise and useful book

Between East and West combines the excitement of a well-written and adventurous travelogue with sophisticated reportage about one of Europe's least-known regions

A beautifully written and thought-provoking account of a journey along Europe's forgotten edge

Anne Applebaum is the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize, and Iron Curtain, which in 2013 won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature and the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. She is Professor of Practice at the Institute for Global Affairs, London School of Economics, and a columnist for the Washington Post. She divides her time between Britain and Poland.

The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56

Iron Curtain

Chosen 16 times as a 'Book of the Year' - the top non-fiction pick of 2012 
 
'The best work of modern history I have ever read' A. N. Wilson, Financial Times 
 
At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union unexpectedly found itself in control of a huge swathe of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: Communism. Anne Applebaum's landmark history of this brutal time shows how societies were ruthlessly eviscerated by Communist regimes, how opposition was destroyed and what life was like for ordinary people who had to choose whether to fight, to flee or to collaborate. 
 
A haunting reminder of how fragile freedom can be, Iron Curtain is an exceptional work of historical and moral reckoning. 
 
 
ANNE APPLEBAUM is a historian and journalist, a regular columnist for the Washington Post and Slate, and the author of several books, including Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. She is the Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London, and she divides her time between Britain and Poland, where her husband, Radek Sikorski, serves as Foreign Minister. 
 
'The outstanding book of the year ... a masterpiece' Oliver Kamm, The Times, Books of the Year 
 
'Exceptionally important, wise, perceptive, remarkably objective' Antony Beevor 
 
'Explains in a manner worthy of Arthur Koestler what totalitarianism really means ... it is a window into a world of lies and evil that we can hardly imagine' Edward Lucas, Standpoint 
 
'At last the story can be told ... a magisterial history' Orlando Figes, Mail on Sunday

A History of the Soviet Camps

Gulag

One of the most important and best-selling history hardbacks of 2003 - over 15,000 copies sold.

This landmark book uncovers for the first time in detail one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century: the vast system of Soviet camps that were responsible for the deaths of countless millions. 
 
Gulag is the only major history in any language to draw together the mass of memoirs and writings on the Soviet camps that have been published in Russia and the West. Using these, as well as her own original research in NKVD archives and interviews with survivors, Anne Applebaum has written a fully documented history of the camp system: from its origins under the tsars, to its colossal expansion under Stalin's reign of terror, its zenith in the late 1940s and eventual collapse in the era of glasnost. It is a gigantic feat of investigation, synthesis and moral reckoning.

Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum is one of the wisest, best informed and most trenchant commentators on global politics. This book, which should be compulsory reading for every G7 head of government and foreign minister, sets out in disturbing detail the assault overt and covert by autocrats everywhere on liberal democracies and open societies. She demonstrates how we should not only fight for liberal values against Russia, China and all their cronies, but also live up to them ourselves

Chris Patten, Former British Governor of Hong Kong

Autocracy, Inc. offers an eloquent indictment of Western collusion in the creation of these autocracies… a clear-sighted and unflinching look at the ideas, resentments, assumptions and practices of the regimes that are challenging liberal democracy

Clear-sighted and fearless … a masterclass in the marriage of dodgy government to international criminality … (both) deeply disturbing; it couldn’t be anything else [and is] a lively pleasure to read

Autocracy, Inc. is a valuable book for many reasons, but the focus on illicit wealth creation and on those in democracies who enable it is especially timely. So is Applebaum’s recommendation that we wage war on autocratic behaviors wherever they occur

Rigorously researched, bracing and realistic… But she is by no means fatalistic, urging free nations to confront the complicity of financial, legal and communications professionals in enabling Autocracy, Inc

Applebaum deserves credit for drawing attention to the alarming new alliances of dictatorships seeking to shackle freedom, undemrine human rights, and usurp our values – along with the complacency of democracies that have done so little to stop the flood of fake news ... and flows of dirty money

In under 200 pages of breathless, urgent prose ... Applebaum highlight(s) the unlikely partnerships among the world’s autocratic regimes [and] does an excellent job laying out the corrupting effects these autocracies have on western democracies

Excellent … clear … a call to arms to defend our societies

A fearsomely active journalist ... Autocracy, Inc. is an-up-to-the moment examination of how modern-day autocracies, not just that of Russia's President Putin, but also including China, North Korea, and Iran, act as a kind of informal bloc to challenge what they see as the West's 'hegemony'

The strength of Autocracy, Inc. lies in its description of how autocrats bend and distort opinion, and find allies across national boundaries

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another—and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. 
 
Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc. Their relations are not based on values, but are rather transactional, which is why they operate so easily across ideological, geographical, and cultural lines. In truth, they are in full agreement about only one thing: Their dislike of us, the inhabitants of the democratic world, and their desire to see both our political systems and our values undermine. 
 
That shared understanding of the world—where it comes from, why it lasts, how it works, how the democratic world has unwittingly helped to consolidate it, and how we can help bring it down—is the subject of this book.

Anne Applebaum

Praise for Autocracy, Inc

Anne Applebaum is one of the wisest, best informed and most trenchant commentators on global politics. This book, which should be compulsory reading for every G7 head of government and foreign minister, sets out in ...

Autocracy, Inc. offers an eloquent indictment of Western collusion in the creation of these autocracies… a clear-sighted and unflinching look at the ideas, resentments, assumptions and practices of the regime ...

Clear-sighted and fearless … a masterclass in the marriage of dodgy government to international criminality … (both) deeply disturbing; it couldn’t be anything else [and is] a lively pleasure to read

Anne Applebaum is one of the wisest, best informed and most trenchant commentators on global politics. This book, which should be compulsory reading for every G7 head of government and foreign minister, sets out in ...

Autocracy, Inc. offers an eloquent indictment of Western collusion in the creation of these autocracies… a clear-sighted and unflinching look at the ideas, resentments, assumptions and practices of the regime ...

Clear-sighted and fearless … a masterclass in the marriage of dodgy government to international criminality … (both) deeply disturbing; it couldn’t be anything else [and is] a lively pleasure to read

Anne Applebaum is one of the wisest, best informed and most trenchant commentators on global politics. This book, which should be compulsory reading for every G7 head of government and foreign minister, sets out in ...

Autocracy, Inc. offers an eloquent indictment of Western collusion in the creation of these autocracies… a clear-sighted and unflinching look at the ideas, resentments, assumptions and practices of the regime ...

Clear-sighted and fearless … a masterclass in the marriage of dodgy government to international criminality … (both) deeply disturbing; it couldn’t be anything else [and is] a lively pleasure to read

Books by Anne Applebaum

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