Preview
  • The Age of the Strongman

  • How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World
  • By: Gideon Rachman
  • Narrated by: John Hopkins, Gideon Rachman
  • Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (66 ratings)

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The Age of the Strongman

By: Gideon Rachman
Narrated by: John Hopkins, Gideon Rachman
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Publisher's summary

The author of Easternization, an award-winning journalist, offers an intimate look at the rise of strongman leaders around the globe, charting the most urgent political story of our era.

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 be standing 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. What’s more, these leaders are not just operating in authoritarian political systems but have begun to emerge in the heartlands of liberal democracy.

From Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro to Erdogan, Xi and Modi, Gideon Rachman pays full attention to the strongman phenomenon around the world and uncovers the complex and often surprising interaction between these leaders. In the process, he finds the common themes in our local nightmares and offers a bold new paradigm for understanding our world, and finds global coherence in the chaos of the new nationalism, leadership cults and hostility to liberal democracy.

While others have tried to understand the emergence of these new leaders individually, The Age of the Strongman provides the first truly global treatment of the new nationalism, underpinned by an exceptional level of access to key actors in this drama: Gideon Rachman has been in the same room with most of these strongmen and reported from their countries over a long journalistic career.

©2022 Gideon Rachman (P)2022 Random House Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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What listeners say about The Age of the Strongman

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Splendid análisis in each chapter, invite me to think which will be the best model to govern.

Splendid análisis in each chapter, invite me to think which will be the best model to govern. I really think all politics systems are not giving the best to the people, soon we will have to change, this change must help development in the world.

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Generally agree but conclusions and

Especially in light of current events this is a very informative read and provides an interesting backdrop to how Strongmen work snd is informative on how they rise snd fall.

My issue with the book is the out and out pro liberal policies and that all r conservative leaders are bad and all left wing leaders are good. Please note I’m not a fan at all of Donald Trump, but one would be a fool to think.President Biden has been successful. The cheerleading for Biden and how everything he believes is correct started to get a bit over the top. Additionally, although written prior to Dobbs, I think liberal reaction to Dobbs and earlier with Biden looking to change the numbers on the Supreme Court is exactly the type of Strongman policies that are so offensive.

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