The Age of The Strongman

A carefully written analysis of strongman leaders all over the world and the threat they pose to liberal democracy... Rachman illuminates the common instincts, tactics and behaviour that link leaders as diverse as Trump, Putin, Xi and Modi

Anne Applebaum

This readable book does an admirable job of providing the lay of the land and highlighting the importance of the battle of ideas for the future of our institutions and norms

Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor

Essential and definitive... To understand the chilling stakes of the global Great Game defining this century - the battle between autocracies and democracies - you need only turn to Rachman's magisterial and deftly written book

Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People

Timely, laser-sharp and unsettling. In telling us about strongmen who dominate politics around the world, Gideon Rachman paints a picture that is at turns illuminating and terrifying. A must read

Peter Frankopan, author of The New Silk Roads

A searing analysis... A superb and scintillating portrait, indispensable for understanding our crisis-riven age

Shruti Kapila, author of Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age

When it comes to making sense of today's world, Gideon Rachman is in a league of his own. He is sharp, original and unsentimental.

Ivan Krastev, co-author of The Light that Failed

In a chaotic world where old definitions of left and right no longer hold, Rachman expertly and artfully surfaces the underlying political, economic and cultural patterns behind the new authoritarianism across the world

Peter Pomserantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda

This is a brilliant, unsettling portrait of our era

Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War

Timing is everything. Gideon Rachman has got his spot on with The Age Of The Strongman

Daily Mail

Timely...Rachman... has a journalist's eye for the telling quote combined with a sharp analysis of the factors that enabled them to achieve power and hold on to it

Sunday Times

Rachman... always prompt[s] deeper thought about how the West should be dealing with the challenge [of the strongman]... [a] lucid, well-argued book

Roger Boyes, The Times

Fascinating...Rachman uncovers a source of contemporary authoritarian thinking in many places

Literary Review

Wide-ranging and astute... Rachman's most powerful point concerns not the strongmen themselves, but Western politicians' and commentators' wishful thinking about them

Economist

This is a book whose significance is enhanced by unpredictable events... [A] pithy and forceful book

Misha Glenny, Observer

Brilliant and profoundly alarming... a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency

Scotsman

Solidly constructed, engaging and factually sound... A penetrating distillation of the essential ingredients of the strongman

Financial Times

A series of fluent, well-informed essays about the global rise of authoritarianism

Simon Tisdall, Guardian

[A] brilliant and profoundly alarming book... Gideon Rachman offers a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency

Joyce McMillan, Yorkshire Post

This brilliant and profoundly alarming book...offers a comprehensive survey, written with pace, clarity, and a superb, page-turning narrative fluency

Scotsman, *Summer Reads of 2022*

Essential reading... Recent events in eastern Europe and beyond make it all the more timely

The Times, *Books of the Year*