The Light that Failed

A brilliant, original book on the crisis of modern liberalism… a must read to understand our present discontents – Lionel Barber * Financial Times Books of the Year *If you read one book to understand the state of the world today, make it this one. Aphoristic, counter-intuitive and amusing, a single page provides more insight into populism than libraries of books on Brexit or Trump. . . Extraordinary and compelling… Its subject matter is bleak but the deep learning, humour and humanity of its authors shines through – Mark Leonard * Prospect *A brilliant explanation of the mess we are in… written with wonderfully dry wit * Evening Standard Books of the Year *An important book that fizzes with ideas… There is a smart insight or elegant paradox on almost every page… This book poses in stark terms the dilemma for those who took for granted the ideas that created the postwar western world * Sunday Times *Sharp, polemical and ideas-packed * Economist *Compelling and witty * Prospect Books of the Year *An unflinchingly honest explanation of what has gone wrong in the west - and the east - since 1989 * Financial Times *A bracing analysis of post-Cold War politics, upending cherished assumptions and forcing us to look afresh at the complex dialectic of liberalism and illiberalism – George SorosThis is a book about imitation by a couple of utterly inimitable authors. It is the most original explanation I’ve read of the self-destruction of the liberal West as universal utopia. Scathing yet fair – Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is PossibleWitty, incisive, devastating: an unforgettable analysis of why the light of liberalism failed in Eastern Europe, and why resentment towards imitation of the West has fueled the furies of the populist revolt – Michael Ignatieff, President of Central European University, Budapest

Ivan Krastev

Ivan Krastev is a fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times and, most recently, the author of the widely acclaimed After Europe.

Stephen Holmes

Stephen Holmes is Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and the author of many books on liberalism.