Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum

Do not miss this book. It is a compact 200 pages that meanders through out Europe looking at the current swing in the direction away from democracies and towards totalitarian regimes. She starts off with her adopted country of Poland, where the process began a bit earlier and ther is less of a history of democracy deep within the culture. What is deep in the culture is religious and reacil prejudice in general and antisemetism specifically. The swing towards autocratic and also inexperienced government, while openly practicing cronyism is well known by now, but her story is intimate and compelling. She is American, but living in Poland for 25 years as the wife of a former Poland defence and foreign minister and a Jew. She then goes on to delineate fractures in democracy in Europe and of course in the United States as well, with the GOP openly resorting to voting restrictions, virtually admitting they cannot be assured of a win in a fair and open vote. This is by no means a wake up call, but rather an assessment of a situation well in progress.