The Twilight of Democracy | Anne Applebaum with Matthew d’Ancona

Join the eminent reporter and historian for an investigation into the central political dilemma of our time: why did the wave of enthusiasm for liberal democracy come to an end? How did we come to be so angry and divided?

From the rise of autocratic, paranoid governments in Eastern Europe to the apocalyptic pessimism that fuelled the rise of Trump, few of us can ignore the evidence that democracy is in decline, replaced by new political realities fraught with division and despair. But why have so many societies been seduced by autocrats and kleptocrats – and what can we hope to do about it?

Anne Applebaum is one the world’s foremost experts in the rise and fall of totalitarian regimes. As a Pulitzer Prize winning historian she documented the horrors of Stalinism and the Soviet gulags; as a contemporary political analyst and journalist, she witnessed and documented the fall of the iron curtain and the birth of a new world that looked forward to the triumph of democracy.

Now she joins How To Academy to explore our current political moment, examining not only the political leaders and historic figures eroding democratic norms, but the dissatisfied intellectuals, philosophers, spin doctors and journalists deliberately sewing new anger and anxiety – many of whom were once her friends. What happened to make them turn their backs on liberal democracy, and embrace nationalism and conspiracy theories?

Don’t miss this chance to hear the insights of one of the foremost political commentators of our time.

Anne Applebaum is the author of Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, which won the Cundill Prize and Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine which won the Lionel Gelber and Duff Cooper prizes. She is a columnist for The Atlantic and a senior fellow of the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She divides her time between Britain, Poland and the USA.

Matthew d’Ancona is an editor at Tortoise Media and an award-winning columnist. He writes for the Guardian, London Evening Standard and GQ. He was previously editor of the Spectator and founding editor-in-chief of Drugstore Culture. His most recent book, Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back, received global acclaim