Why This Book Matters Now
Democracy does not collapse only under tanks. It collapses when insiders defect, when elites trade principle for power, and when trusted voices amplify lies. Anne Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy investigates how a generation that once celebrated liberal triumph after 1989 now fuels a new authoritarian wave. For readers of Frontline Europa, this book explains why the West undermines itself even as it faces hybrid threats from abroad.
The Author
Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and journalist, has chronicled Soviet terror in the Gulag and Eastern Europe’s struggles in Iron Curtain. With Twilight of Democracy, she turns inward. Instead of focusing on dictators alone, she examines colleagues, acquaintances, and friends — people who once stood for liberal democracy but now rally behind nationalist and authoritarian projects. Her personal vantage point gives the book both authority and urgency.
Key Arguments
Applebaum shows how disinformation, resentment, and political polarisation eroded faith in democratic institutions. She traces how intellectuals and politicians across Poland, Hungary, Britain, and the United States abandoned liberal values. Instead, they embraced conspiracy theories, culture wars, and media manipulation.
She argues that authoritarianism seduces not through brute force but through the promise of order, identity, and simplicity. Therefore, the threat comes not only from external actors like Russia but from internal betrayal. Applebaum reveals how old friends reinvented themselves as propagandists, excusing corruption and attacking independent institutions.
The book highlights a sobering truth: democracies often implode from within, not from invasion. Applebaum insists that citizens must recognise this pattern and defend liberal values before the window closes.
Why You Should Read It
Twilight of Democracy complements Timothy Snyder’s work by showing how authoritarianism spreads not only through Kremlin operations but also through Western weakness. It teaches that vigilance must focus on both external threats and internal collaborators. For anyone who wants to understand Europe’s fragility in the twenty-first century, Applebaum’s book is indispensable.
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