Publisher's Synopsis
'Timely, laser-sharp and unsettling... A must read' - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
Essential and definitive... To understand the chilling stakes of the global Great Game defining this century - the battle between autocracies and democracies - you need only turn to Rachman's magisterial and deftly written book - Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People
We are in a new era.
Authoritarian leaders have become a central feature of global politics. Since 2000, self-styled strongmen have risen to power in capitals as diverse as Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Brasilia, Budapest, Ankara, Riyadh and Washington.
These leaders are nationalists and social conservatives, with little tolerance for minorities, dissent or the interests of foreigners. At home, they claim to stand up for ordinary people against globalist elites; abroad, they posture as the embodiments of their nations. And everywhere they go, they encourage a cult of personality. These leaders are not just operating in authoritarian political systems but have begun to emerge in the heartlands of liberal democracy.
While the EU referendum and election of Donald Trump in 2016 mark a watershed, the new era started at the beginning of the millennium, when Vladimir Putin took power in Russia. How and why did this new style of strongman leadership arrive? How likely is it to lead to war or economic collapse? And what forces are in place not only to keep these strongmen in check but to reverse the trend?
From Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro to Erdogan, Xi and Modi, The Age of the Strongman provides the first truly global treatment of the new nationalism and offers a bold new paradigm for understanding our world.
In a chaotic world where old definitions of left and right no longer hold, Rachman expertly and artfully surfaces the underlying political, economic and cultural patterns behind the new authoritarianism across the world. - Peter Pomserantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda
A carefully written analysis of strongman leaders all over the world and the threat they pose to liberal democracy... Rachman illuminates the common instincts, tactics and behaviour that link leaders as diverse as Trump, Putin, Xi and Modi - Anne Applebaum
This is a brilliant, unsettling portrait of our era. - Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War
