The Light That Failed

Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy

By: Ivan Krastev, Stephen Holmes

Narrated by: David de Vries

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 there but also back in the heartland of the West.

In this brilliant work of political history, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of Communism turned out to be only the beginning of the age of the autocrat. Reckoning with the history of the last 30 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 Orba´n’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 the fall of the Western ideal.

©2019 Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Poignant and Thoughtful

Beautifully written and clear-headed commentary on the world's move away from liberal democracy. Heavy on academic vocabulary and theory -- those with a background in foreign policy or international relations will get a lot out of this book!

Wow. I listened twice

This is the most lucid and believable explanation of the history of the world political situation since the Berlin Wall Fall. Putin makes sense, China makes sense, Eastern Europe makes sense, and the US story almost does when seen as the failure of ideologies requiring evangelism & conversion of the masses, but rather the rise of multiple centers of self-serving cultures.

Great text

Great text worth listening, but the question persists, where do we go from there as the global economy is not going anywhere and the countries become even closer.

Outstanding must-read

This is a fascinating analysis of the path that took us from 1989 to the 2020 moment. The insights into Orbán and Putin’s thinking redirected my understanding.

So insightful!

I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have always valued trying to understand those who think differently than you. This book does that for whole nations.