*Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize 2020*

Book of the Year selection by: FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, PROSPECT, and EVENING STANDARD

A landmark book that completely transforms our understanding of the crisis of liberalism, by two prominent thinkers. Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the late 1990s, hopes for the eastward expansion of liberal democracy were high. However, the transformation of Eastern European countries led to a bitter rejection of liberalism in both the Eastern and central Western world.

In this brilliant work of political psychology, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of history proved to be just the beginning of an Age of Imitation. Looking at the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist revolt that started in Eastern Europe comes from the frustration of the imperative to become Western after 1989.

Through this lens, the Trump revolution represents an ironic fulfillment of the promise that nations emerging from communist rule would come to resemble the United States. In a strange twist, Trump has elevated Putin's Russia and Orbán's Hungary as models for the United States.

Written by two prominent thinkers bridging the East-West divide, The Light that Failed is a landmark book highlighting the remarkable story of the Age of Imitation.

Pages: 256, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm