A wake-up call that aims to restore our understanding of the basis of our way of life, from the author of international bestseller On Tyranny.

‘One of the best...brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy’s retreat in the early years of 21st century’ Guardian

The past is another country, the old saying goes. The same might be said of the future. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia.

In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West; by supporting the far right in Europe, invading Ukraine in 2014, and waging a cyberwar during the 2016 presidential campaign and the EU referendum. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the creation of Donald Trump, an American failure deployed as a Russian weapon. But this threat presents an opportunity to better understand the pillars of our freedoms and face the choices that will determine the future: equality or oligarchy, individualism or totalitarianism, truth or lies.

‘A brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world’ Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens