Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group , 2024.
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Times "A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism... clear-sighted and fearless.”—John Simpson, The Guardian "Especially timely."—The Washington PostWe think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan's essay calling for "containment" of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.

More Details

Format
eBook
Street Date
07/23/2024
Language
English
ISBN
9780385549943

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These books have the appeal factors serious, and they have the genre "politics and global affairs -- world politics"; and the subjects "political corruption," "power," and "democracy."
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Using numerous examples from history, these richly detailed analyses show how the mechanics of despotism have moved from 20th-century cults of personality (Personality and Power) to 21st-century networks of finance and surveillance (Autocracy, Inc.). -- Michael Shumate
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These books have the genre "politics and global affairs -- world politics"; and the subjects "dictatorship," "political corruption," and "power."
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Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Readers of political and historical nonfiction will enjoy both Anne Applebaum's and Timothy Snyder's issue-oriented, scholarly, and reflective books. Applebaum explores autocratic systems from the Soviet era to the modern day; Snyder's subjects range from healthcare to tyrannical rulers to the Holocaust. -- Mary Olson
Historians as well as journalists, Anne Applebaum and Masha Gessen write accessible and well-researched books on the history and legacy of totalitarian rule in Russia and Eastern Europe. Although their subject areas overlap significantly, Applebaum focuses a bit more on Soviet history and Gessen on the post-Soviet era. -- Michael Shumate
Anne Applebaum and Ruth Ben-Ghiat write thought-provoking nonfiction books on the history of authoritarian regimes. While both cover a variety of countries and leaders in their books, Applebaum's area of expertise lies in Russian and Eastern European history, while Ben-Ghiat's research has focused on Mussolini and Italian fascism. -- Michael Shumate
These authors' works have the subjects "soviet union history," "political persecution," and "dictatorship."
These authors' works have the appeal factors bleak, serious, and haunting, and they have the subjects "political persecution," "dictatorship," and "totalitarianism."
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Published Reviews

Choice Review

Following the defeat of Nazism and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the democratic world now faces a new threat in the form of an international network of kleptocrats and dictators whose primary objective is to undermine democracy. In this important book, Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of the Pulitzer Prize--winning book Gulag (2003), describes what she calls "Autocracy, Inc.": the dictators who collaborate to keep themselves in power. Unlike with communism or fascism, the strongmen who today lead Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and dozens of other countries govern not to uphold ideologies but to preserve their personal wealth and power while depriving their citizens of any real influence or public voice. Unlike military or political alliances, autocratic states operate not as a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies bound by a ruthless determination to maintain their political domination over their powerless populations. Applebaum describes how these autocratic states are supported by kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, social media, and professional propagandists. They are all bound by the same message: the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals --Jack Robert Fischel, emeritus, Millersville University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
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Kirkus Book Review

The noted journalist and student of tyranny turns her attention to Trump, Putin, and numerous other modern authoritarians. "A world in which autocracies work together to stay in power, work together to promote their system, and work together to damage democracies is not some distant dystopia," writes Applebaum. "That world is the one we are living in right now." In the meantime, she notes, democracies, as if paralyzed, accommodate both the lawlessness of the autocrats and the violence they incite: Witness, for instance, the growing myth that Jan. 6, 2021, was acceptable political expression. Whereas autocrats once worked singly, today they're shored up by an international kleptocracy and shared understandings--don't criticize my oppressiveness, and I won't criticize yours--that make allies of disparate rulers from Washington to Budapest to Harare. These rulers are shameless, Applebaum notes. They no longer bother to disguise their acts of aggression and brutality, as with Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a declaration that old rules no longer applied. Autocrats differ in style, but they share a hatred for an independent judiciary, representative government, and the free press--i.e., all the hallmarks of democracy. Against this, Applebaum suggests, it behooves the democratic nations of the world to band together in mutual support precisely because "their democracies are not safe." One means of support would be to reject news that comes from the likes of Russia Today and Xinhua, which inform so much antidemocratic dissension in the "free world," and instead insist on reliable information. Exactly how this is to be achieved isn't quite clear, but it's a worthy idea, as is the suggestion that increased policing of kleptocratic antics and their enablers--not least "the bankers in Sioux Falls happy to accept mystery deposits from mystery clients"--is needed. Central to any discussion of modern totalitarianism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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LJ Express Reviews

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Applebaum (staff writer, The Atlantic; Twilight of Democracy) explores the connections between autocratic states. She argues that autocracies such as China and Russia are motivated by a shared ideology and desire to increase their own wealth and power. Therefore, she asserts, they cooperate to enrich themselves and to undermine democracies and ideals which threaten their goals. Her book shows that autocracies create their own networks of support to circumnavigate international sanctions, reduce transparency, encourage corruption, and advocate for changing international laws and norms for their own benefit. Additionally, they utilize similar strategies to discredit democracies and dissenters. She explores topics such as money laundering, surveillance, propaganda, and resistance movements to show the similarities in tactics between autocratic states and analyzes how their activities can spill over into democracies. The author clearly explains why autocratic tactics have been effective and uses examples of historic and recent events in places such as China, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela and Zimbabwe to illustrate. Her book includes recommendations for democracies to combat autocracies, which include transparency and joint action. VERDICT A fascinating and alarming look at authoritarian cooperation. Will appeal to readers interested in political science and the preservation of democracy.—Rebekah Kati

Copyright 2024 LJExpress.

Copyright 2024 LJExpress.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Applebaum, A. (2024). Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Applebaum, Anne. 2024. Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Applebaum, Anne. Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2024.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Applebaum, A. (2024). Autocracy, inc: the dictators who want to run the world. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Applebaum, Anne. Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2024.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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