...the better book to buy for insight into what Trump's rise and rule really mean—here and abroad—for democracy in our time.

... an illuminating political memoir about the break-up of the political tribe that won the Cold War. It can be read with profit even if you disagree, as I do, with the thesis it is wrapped up in.

Her historical expertise and knowledge of contemporary Europe and the United States illuminate what is eternal and distinctive about the political perils facing us today.

... engrossing.

For Applebaum, the question is how her peers—all of whom, at the turn of the century, supported 'the pro-European, pro-rule-of-law, pro-market' consensus that dominated not only center-right but also most center-left politics after the fall of communism—have come to avow reactionary conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia and to show a slavish loyalty to demagogues like Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán. Twilight of Democracy is her attempt at an answer; in other words, it is Applebaum’s effort to explain why so many of her once-close friends have turned out to be fascists.

Are these enablers true believers or just cynical opportunists? Do they believe the lies they tell and the conspiracies they invent or are they simply greedy for wealth and power? The answers she reaches are frankly equivocal, which in our era of dueling absolutes is commendable if sometimes a little frustrating.

Some will sympathise with [Applebaum's] dismay at these former comrades’ abandonment of political pluralism, and her anger at their toleration of state-sanctioned antisemitism. Others will instead see only the bewilderment of an entitled liberal elite that has suddenly discovered that it can no longer take its own ascendancy for granted.

... [Applebaum] joins her professional skills to her personal experiences, producing an often sobering, sometimes shocking, but never despairing account of the rise of authoritarianism in the West.

The language of British politics has changed. But it is a step too far to equate the voters and those committed to exit as authoritarian or participating in the 'twilight of democracy'.

... compelling.

If anyone is well-placed to write about the global rise of authoritarian regimes and their polarization of society, it is Applebaum. I thought this would be a meaty book, but I was surprised that the slim volume read more like a longer version of one of her Atlantic Magazine articles.

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.

... deeply personal.