After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke the World

In this incisive account, political scientist Shapiro (Uncommon Sense) considers how “the widespread optimism that prevailed when the Berlin Wall came down” has given way “to politics whose closest parallels are to the 1930s when fascism and communism obliterated democracies.” Arguing that this moment was not inevitable, he tracks how it was caused by crucial missteps by a variety of leaders. These include, most prominently, the neoconservatives who saw in the aftermath of 9/11 an opportunity to remake the world in America’s image, whose hubris was captured in the words of Bush administration adviser Ron Suskind: “We are an Empire... when we act we create our own reality.” This sort of power drunkenness meant missed post-9/11 opportunities to strengthen UN leadership and a genuine rules-based order, Shapiro writes. In later chapters, he casts blame on President Clinton’s dismissal of the idea that enlarging NATO would provoke Russia, as well as President Obama’s refusal, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, to shore up the labor market, even as he was advised that male workers were losing high-paying jobs in record numbers, a factor crucial to the populist rise of Trump. Shapiro’s sharp examination shows how voters around the world ended up disillusioned, a disenchantment he direly calls “the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” It’s a stark wake-up call. (May)