The Light That Failed

The Light that Failed

A landmark book that completely transforms our understanding of the crisis of liberalism, from two pre-eminent intellectuals Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only there but also back in the heartland of the West. In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized. Through this prism, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that the nations exiting from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin's Russia and Orbán's Hungary into models for the United States. Written by two pre-eminent intellectuals bridging the East/West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book that sheds light on the extraordinary history of our Age of Imitation.

The Triumph of the Dark

Following on her acclaimed study of the collapse of international security during the early 1930s, Zara Steiner gives a dramatic and authoritative account of the coming catastrophe. She shows that the era of Hitler's rise to power, an ascent bent on war, was founded on ideologies which the democratic perception could neither penetrate nor arrest. Like few others, this survey takes both European and East Asian conflicts into interlocking accounts. In the light ofnew material, she refutes attempts to whitewash Mussolini; argues that Anglo-French military response in 1938 had realistic prospects; traces the global ramifications of Sino-Japanese wars; andre-evalues Moscow's diplomatic options. Zara Steiner shows that only Hitler regarded the Jewish question as of primary importance. Lucid, formidably documented, this profoundly original work will alter our perceptions of the tragic, decisive epoch from which our present world-map has emerged.

The Light That Failed