Timely...Rachman... has a journalist's eye for the telling quote combined with a <b>sharp analysis </b>of the factors that enabled them to achieve power and hold on to it

Sunday Times

<b>This is a brilliant, unsettling portrait of our era</b>

- Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War,

When it comes to making sense of today's world,<b> Gideon Rachman is in a league of his own.</b> He is sharp, original and unsentimental.

- Ivan Krastev, co-author of The Light that Failed,

<b>Essential and definitive</b>... To understand the chilling stakes of the global Great Game defining this century - the battle between autocracies and democracies - you need only turn to Rachman's <b>magisterial and deftly written book</b>

- Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People,

<b>Timely, laser-sharp and unsettling.</b> In telling us about strongmen who dominate politics around the world, Gideon Rachman paints a picture that is at turns<b> illuminating and terrifying. A must read</b>

- Peter Frankopan, author of The New Silk Roads,

<b>A searing analysis</b>... <b>A superb and scintillating portrait, indispensable</b> for understanding our crisis-riven age

- Shruti Kapila, author of Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age,

In a chaotic world where old definitions of left and right no longer hold, Rachman <b>expertly and artfully </b>surfaces the underlying political, economic and cultural patterns behind the new authoritarianism across the world

- Peter Pomserantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda,

A carefully written analysis of strongman leaders all over the world and the threat they pose to liberal democracy... Rachman illuminates the common instincts, tactics and behaviour that link leaders as diverse as Trump, Putin, Xi and Modi

- Anne Applebaum,

This readable book does an admirable job of providing the lay of the land and highlighting the importance of the battle of ideas for the future of our institutions and norms

Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor

Brilliant and profoundly alarming... a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency

Scotsman

Rachman... always prompt[s] deeper thought about how the West should be dealing with the challenge [of the strongman]... [a] lucid, well-argued book

- Roger Boyes, The Times

Fascinating...Rachman uncovers a source of contemporary authoritarian thinking in many places

Literary Review

Wide-ranging and astute... Rachman's most powerful point concerns not the strongmen themselves, but Western politicians' and commentators' wishful thinking about them

Economist

This is a book whose significance is enhanced by unpredictable events... [A] pithy and forceful book

- Misha Glenny, Observer

A series of fluent, well-informed essays about the global rise of authoritarianism

- Simon Tisdall, Guardian

<b>This brilliant and profoundly alarming book...offers a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency</b>

Scotsman, *Summer Reads of 2022*

[A] brilliant and profoundly alarming book... Gideon Rachman offers a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency

- Joyce McMillan, Yorkshire Post