Synopsis
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, MADELEINE ALBRIGHT! From one of the most admired international leaders, comes a timely, considered, and personal look at the history and resurgence of fascism today and the threat it poses to international freedom, prosperity, and peace. At the end of the 80s, when the Cold War ended, many, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, believed that democracy had triumphed politically once and for all. Yet nearly 30 years later, the direction of history no longer seems certain. A repressive and destructive force has begun to re-emerge on the global stage--sweeping across Europe, parts of Asia, and the US--that to Albright, looks very much like fascism. Based on her personal experience growing up in Hungary under Hitler and the Communist regime that followed WWII, as well as knowledge gleaned from her distinguished diplomatic career and insights from colleagues around the globe, she paints a clear picture of how fascism flourishes and explains why it is once again taking hold worldwide, identifying the factors contributing to its rise. Most importantly, she makes clear what could happen if we fail to act against rising fascist forces today and in the near future, including the potential for economic catastrophe, a lasting spike in terrorist activity, a rash of large-scale humanitarian emergencies and human rights violations, a breakdown in multilateral cooperation, and nearly irreparable self-inflicted damage to America's reputation and capacity to lead. Albright also offers clear solutions, including adjusting to the ubiquity of social media and the changing nature of the workplace, and understanding ordinary citizens' universal desire for sources of constancy and morality in their lives. She contends that we must stimulate economic growth and narrow the gap between the rich and poor, urban and rural, women and men, and skilled and unskilled; work across borders to respond to transnational challenges.
Review
"Albright outlines the warning signs of fascism and offers concrete actions for restoring America's values and reputation. There is priceless wisdom on every page."--Booklist (starred review)
"Besides providing an overview of the careers of Mussolini and Hitler, Albright looks at leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Turkey's Recep Erdogan, Hungary's Viktor Orban, and Russia's Vladimir Putin.... Sage advice in perilous times."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Fascism: A Warning is dedicated to victims of fascism, but also to "all who fight fascism in others and in themselves." Mrs Albright has earned the right to that ambitious mission-statement. At a moment when the question "Is this how it begins?" haunts Western democracies, she writes with rare authority.... [Yet] if her learning is to be expected, her way with words is a happy surprise, as is her wisdom about human nature. Free of geopolitical jargon, her deceptively simple prose is sprinkled with shrewd observations about the emotions that underpin bad or wicked political decisions."--Economist
"Incisive... [Albright] offers cogent insights on worrisome political trends."--Publishers Weekly
"Albright [has] serious credibility on the subject. She witnessed the evils of Fascism firsthand, as her book movingly chronicles. And she effectively makes the case: pay more attention to the signals, subtle and strong. A lot more."--The New Yorker
"Fascism [is] the work of a woman who knows authoritarianism when she sees it. And she sees the seeds of it not only in a slew of leaders hell bent on subverting democratic norms--Turkey's Erdoğan, Venezuela's Maduro, Hungary's Orbán, and others--but also in Donald Trump, whom she calls in the book 'the first antidemocratic president in modern U.S. history.'"--The Daily Beast
"Why, as Madeleine Albright asks early in her new book, 'are we once again talking about fascism?' Who better to address these questions than Albright, whose life was shaped by fascism and whose contribution to the cultivation of democracy as a stateswoman and private citizen is unparalleled? In Fascism: A Warning Albright (with Bill Woodward) draws on her personal history, government experience and conversations with Georgetown students to assess current dangers and how to deal with them."--New York Times
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