A Reckoning

The Light that Failed

*Winner of the 2020 Lionel Gelber Prize* 
FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, PROSPECT and EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK 
 
A landmark book that completely transforms our understanding of the crisis of liberalism, from two pre-eminent intellectuals 
 
Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? 
 
In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only in the East but also back in the heartland of the West. 
 
In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized. 
 
Through this prism, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that the nations exiting from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin's Russia and Orbán's Hungary into models for the United States. 
 
Written by two pre-eminent intellectuals bridging the East/West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book that sheds light on the extraordinary history of our Age of Imitation.

A brilliant, original book on the crisis of modern liberalism. . . a must read to understand our present discontents

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

A brilliant explanation of the mess we are in. . . written with wonderfully dry wit

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

An unflinchingly honest explanation of what has gone wrong in the west - and the east - since 1989

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

This 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 Possible

Witty, 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 (Author) 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 (Author) Stephen Holmes is Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and the author of many books on liberalism.

Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? 
 
In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only in the East but also back in the heartland of the West. 
 
In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history turned out to be only the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized. 
 
Through this prism, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that the nations exiting from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin's Russia and Orbán's Hungary into models for the United States. 
 
Written by two pre-eminent intellectuals bridging the East/West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book that sheds light on the extraordinary history of our Age of Imitation.

Ivan Krastev

Few people question the conventional wisdom like Ivan Krastev

Ivan Krastev is one of Europe's leading thinkers

Paradoxes of the Pandemic

'We are able to imagine anything because we are being besieged by something that was considered unimaginable...' 
 
Beneath the panic and bluster, beneath the confusing speeches and the conflicting advice, the Coronavirus pandemic acted, changing our world in the most profound ways. The tragic human cost and the economic devastation will be assessed and calculated for decades to come. But the pandemic also changed things in ways that are less easily expressed and understood. It has made bare the frayed contradictions of modern life. It has distorted things that seemed simple and settled. It has affirmed plain, uncomfortable truths. 
 
In this brilliant, thought-provoking essay, Ivan Krastev, one of our most interesting thinkers today, explores the pandemic's immediate consequences and conceives of its long-term legacy. What will change for the young and for the old? Will things be different for the communities most harmed, and for those who escaped the worst? Where are we now with the US and China, with the UK and Europe? And how do we think our way through the unthinkable?

Ivan Krastev

Praise for Is It Tomorrow Yet?

One of the great European minds of today

Few people question the conventional wisdom like Ivan Krastev

Ivan Krastev is one of Europe's leading thinkers

One of the great European minds of today

Few people question the conventional wisdom like Ivan Krastev

Ivan Krastev is one of Europe's leading thinkers

One of the great European minds of today

Few people question the conventional wisdom like Ivan Krastev

Ivan Krastev is one of Europe's leading thinkers

Books by Ivan Krastev

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