Excerpts: “But there is a a theme: Given the right conditions, any society can turn against democracy. Indeed, if history is anything to go by, all of our societies eventually will” (p. 14).

“Authoritarians need the people who will promote the riot or launch the coup. But they also need the people who can use sophisticated legal language, people who can argue that breaking the constitution or twisting the law is the right thing to do” (p. 17).

“For those who become the one-party state’s gatekeepers, the repetition of these conspiracy theories also brings another reward: power” (p. 45).

“Nor can the backlash against immigrants always be blamed on their failure to assimilate. Anti-Semitism grew strongest in Germany, for example, not when the Jews arrived but precisely when they were integrating, succeeding, even converting” (p. 108).

“Efficiency, liberty, justice, equality, the demands of the individual, and the demands of the group–all these things push us in different directions” (p. 110).

“In many advanced democracies there is now no common debate, let alone a common narrative. People have always had different opinions. Now they have different facts” (p. 113).

“It is an argument for moral equivalence, an argument that undermines faith, hope, and the belief that we can live up to the language of our constitution” (p. 155).

“Still, he thought the struggle was worth continuing. Not because there was a nirvana to be obtained, and not because there was a perfect society to be built, but because apathy was so deadening, so mind-numbing, so soul-destroying” (p. 187).

Applebaum, Anne (2020). Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritariansim. New York: Doubleday.