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The Maasai Pioneers
This is a book about the Maasai pioneers, the men and women who used their talents, resources, knowledge, skills, charisma and character to serve the community, or a section of it, between the mid-1700’s and early 21st Century. Sironka has ably examined the traditional and modern pioneers, from Olarinkoi in the Endikir e Kerio (the Kerio Valley), to Stanley Oloitipitip from Loitokitok. He has brilliantly weaved Maasai history, culture, leadership, politics, land and other pertinent issues throughout the book, making it informative and very interesting to read.
This powerful book reads like the book of Numbers in the Bible when 12 Jewish spies were sent to spy the land of Canaan, which the Israelites wanted to conquer and occupy.
Ten came back and reported that the land was full of giants and dangerous people. They discouraged the Jews from pursuing their vision of capturing Canaan. They were psychologically and mentally defeated by the sight and the physique of the people they saw in Canaan. When the people heard the report, they rebelled. Their fear outweighed their faith in God and vision. Out of the 12 men who spied on Canaan, two (Caleb and Joshua) gave a positive report that the land was theirs already by God’s will, full of milk and honey waiting for them to take possession of. They tried to instill hope and confidence in the community by telling them that nothing and nobody would stop the Israelites from taking the envisioned land of Canaan.
However, the actions and attitudes of the 10 spies caused the Jews to wonder in the wilderness for 40 years. After that, in spite of the deaths and the many challenges faced by the Jews, Caleb, Joshua and their generation did not let the dream die. They led the people to Canaan, leaving behind graves of their pioneers in the desert. Sironka has written an honest book that depicts that very few Maasai pioneers – ancient and recent – fought hard enough, ignited suffcient passion and vision, sacrificed adequately or inspired hope and sustainable development among Maa-speaking people. His thesis is that, like the Jews in Numbers 13 and 14, there have been less Joshuas and Calebs among the Maasai, traditional and modern, to lead the people into sustainable prosperity and progress in the last 300 years.
Kenya in the 1973-1974 UN Security Co...
A compendium of rich history and selections from primary source documents detailing the events and resolutions characterising Kenya’s first year as a member of the most powerful world body: the UN Security Council. The book’s role is to shed light on the primacy of Kenya in world affairs as far back as the seventies. The author Donald W. Kaniaru is a lawyer and advocate by training who has served Kenya and the UN in various capacities; more relevant to this book, he was posted to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in 1970-1974, and in that capacity was involved in many of the direct and indirect deliberations that attended Kenya's first membership in the UN Security Council, and which inform the context and contents of this book.
Totems of Abagusii of Kenya
Ebimanyererio nigo bire bi'echingencho ao ao ase abanto ao ao. N'enchera eyemo abanto b'ororeria oromo bakomanyana na kwemanyia ase abanto bande. Ase abande n'enchera y'ogwetogia. N'abande begenete buna ebimanyererio n'enchera eyemo y'okobeka okwegena ase chinkoro chi'abanto. Komenta nayio, ebimanyererio nigo bigokonya abanto koinyora ing'ai barwete nechimbwa chiabo. Soma egetabu eke egere omanye igoro y'ebimanyererio bi'Abagusii.
*****
Throughout the world, totems are used variously, including linking people with each other and defining the relationships among many people or groups of people. They can represent the connection between people and the spiritual world. Further, totems help people preserve their culture and history. This book presents totems of Abagusii and explains how they came to be, based on oral history passed down generations.
Reminiscing Wonderland
Praise for Dr. Mong'are Bw'Onyancha's Reminiscing Wonderland
“Interesting stories! ...some brought me to tears. Others were enthralling. I was moved by Molo's life story and captivated by the coming of age stories.”
Cindy, Editor
“Reminiscing Wonderland. The narrator's imagination perceives his new school as a magical dreamland, a 'Once upon a time perfect home 'until he encounters 'stains' which threaten to curtail his aspirations. His learner's enthusiasm, just like in the novel, The African Child, is without parallel. He is like an arrow on the hunter's bow, ready to go. Molo is one of the hurdles he has to overcome. Superficially, Molo is portrayed as a cold, stone-hearted troublemaker. Yet, the writer delves into his stained life. By the end, the reader sympathizes with the concept of his being, relationships, and nurturing (compare with the novels, A Grain of Wheat and Crime and Punishment, where main characters don't have close trusted relationships and how they reap what they sow). Good defeats evil, and there is the hope of redemption and support systems to the purest of state. With the passage of time and increase in human activities, all life in Wonderland will be altered in some way (Paradise Lost, Wonderland Stained).”
Sakagwa Ng’iti: A Kisii Prophet
Sakagwa Ng'iti exerted substantial influence on Gusii society and beyond in the latter part of the 1800s. He was many things: a medicine man, rainmaker, an unelected community strategist in dealing with raids from the warring Maasai and Kipsigis, and a prophet whose many prophecies have come to pass, according to those that keenly follow his story.
His death was mysterious, leaving many wondering what really happened. Did he, as some accounts claim, eventually settle among the Kipsigis? Was he carried away by chisokoro (ancestors) to join them in the netherworld as happened with Jesus of Nazareth? How come that his spiritual roles (seer, medicine man, and rainmaker) that ran in the family, waned and eventually died off?
Peter Okari Nyambasora's Sakagwa Ngi'ti, a Kisii Prophet provides some answers to these questions. It traces the emergence of Sakagwa as a prominent player in Gusii of his time, even as he had no formal power accorded by clan, tribe or lineage. Compiled from oral tales, one on one interviews with family members, and written works, the book provides the most authoritative account of Sakagwa yet written.
Sculpted by Design by KEMIRIMO D. OKUJA
The book is the first volume of the History of Uganda from the Biblical perspective. Most of our early history is founded on mythology, folklore or evolution. In this book, you get to read the Bible as the life manual written by God for the reader, the dreamer, and the one on a quest to make meaning out of life. God did not merely throw words around and out came this world. Like the sculptor and engineer, He carefully and masterfully placed His Words in the universe as valuable trinkets. He unveiled over seven days, a most delightful and perfect maze, our world. This world includes Africa, it includes Uganda and all who live within its boundaries.
The Gusii of Kenya by John S. Akama
The Gusii of Kenya: Social, Economic, Cultural, Political & Judicial Perspectives provides in-depth topical insights of the Gusii (also known as the Kisii) of Kenya. The book captures historical aspects of the Gusii and how they ended up occupying their present lands. It enunciates the group’s cultural, political and economic organization that are core to the group’s identify and overall survival. Reading the book would provide understanding of some noticeable elements of these perspectives that persist to date. Cultural aspects such as the rites of passage and weddings, part of core identity elements of a people, are well articulated. Social organization, starting at the homestead to clan to community level, was intricately woven to form a coherence whole that defined the Gusii. Indeed, this also formed a basis of core elements of code of conduct (chinsoni) and justice as traditionally administered.
The book also raises a number of questions regarding the core character of the Gusii such as lack of central authority and the implications this has had on the community over time. One can only speculate the trajectory of history that would have been had the Gusii organized themselves differently.
Gusii Soapstone Industry:Critical iss...
As is the case with most African indigenous industries, not much research has been done on
the Gusii soapstone industry. Consequently, the main aim of this book is to fill the identified
gap. Specifically, this book traces the origin of the Gusii soapstone industry, going through
various stages, i.e. the Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Post-Colonial periods. Within this historical
context, the book provides an elucidation of the social, economic, political and cultural factors
that have impacted on the evolution and/or development of the soapstone industry. A critical
issue captured in the book is the fact that, over the years, the soapstone handicraft products
have been transformed from being items of utility for the local people to, mainly, becoming
non-utility items that are sold to outsiders, particularly international tourists as unique pieces
of indigenous handicraft and/or African art. However, it should be noted that, notwithstanding
this transformation, indigenous cultural attributes and/or cultural themes that would have
otherwise disappeared, due to increased impacts of globalization, are being preserved by the
sculpturing of unique indigenous soapstone products. Furthermore, currently, the soapstone
industry has become a major source of livelihood for the Gusii people of Tabaka in
Southwestern Kenya.
This book provides a lucid articulation of various facets (i.e., social, economic, cultural and
political perspectives) of the Gusii soapstone industry, and the fundamental factors that have
made the industry survive, over the years, notwithstanding the introduction of mass produced
goods from the Western world. The conceptualization of the role of the indigenous industry in
promoting sustainable livelihood is clearly brought out, and is presented within the broader
milieu of the Gusii society. The book provides excellent reading for anyone interested in having
proper perspectives on the history and the overall development of the Gusii soapstone industry.
Elkanah Ong’esa, a world renowned artist and soapstone sculptor.
As much as the soapstone sculptures are found in museums, art galleries, curio shops and
people’s homes in most major cities of the world, not much research and documentation of
these unique indigenous industry initiatives has been done. In light of that, this book on the
Gusii soapstone industry fills a critical niche and is quite handy for people from all walks of
life and academia looking for up to date information on the Gusii soapstone industry. Dr.
Margaret Barasa, Anthropolinguistic Expert, and Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, Kisii University, Kenya.
Most literature on African indigenous industries, such as soapstone mining, carving and
marketing, is based on Eurocentric approach which looks at these industries and African art as
exotic items for the pleasure of Western gentry and middleclass. Adopting an Afrocentric
approach, this book provides a refreshing analysis of the history, transformation and growth of
the Gusii soapstone industry; an indigenous initiative that has evolved, systematically, over the
years, and has shown a lot of resiliency in the face of many complex challenges. The book is
recommended to people who want to have a proper perspective of similar indigenous industries
and the Gusii soapstone industry in particular. Matunda Nyanchama, Publisher.
This book looks at the resilience of the soapstone industry in Gusii. It shows that the soapstone
carvings as currently developed by the Gusii people may have its origin in ancient traditions
that dates back to hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. It also gives a good historical
analysis of the growth and development of the soapstone industry. It will goes a long way in
illuminating critical aspects of the Gusii soapstone industry. Herman Kiriama, Senior
Research Fellow, Kisii University, Kenya.
The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave ...
Brief Summary
The island nation of Iceland is known for many things—majestic landscapes, volcanic eruptions, distinctive seafood—but racial diversity is not one of them. So the little-known story of Hans Jonathan, a free black man who lived and raised a family in early nineteenth-century Iceland, is improbable and compelling, the stuff of novels.
In The Man Who Stole Himself, Gisli Palsson lays out the story of Hans Jonathan (also known as Hans Jónatan) in stunning detail. Born into slavery in St. Croix in 1784, Hans was taken as a slave to Denmark, where he eventually enlisted in the navy and fought on behalf of the country in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen.
After the war, he declared himself a free man, believing that he was due freedom not only because of his patriotic service, but because while slavery remained legal in the colonies, it was outlawed in Denmark itself. He thus became the subject of one of the most notorious slavery cases in European history, which he lost. Then Hans ran away—never to be heard from in Denmark again, his fate unknown for more than two hundred years. It’s now known that Hans fled to Iceland, where he became a merchant and peasant farmer, married, and raised two children. Today, he has become something of an Icelandic icon, claimed as a proud and daring ancestor both there and among his descendants in America.
The Man Who Stole Himself brilliantly intertwines Hans Jonathan’s adventurous travels with a portrait of the Danish slave trade, legal arguments over slavery, and the state of nineteenth-century race relations in the Northern Atlantic world. Throughout the book, Palsson traces themes of imperial dreams, colonialism, human rights, and globalization, which all come together in the life of a single, remarkable man. Hans literally led a life like no other. His is the story of a man who had the temerity—the courage—to steal himself.
Fountain of Knowledge: History of the...
Fountain of Knowledge: History of the University of Nairobi 1952-2020follows the development of the University from its origins as the Royal Technical College in 1952, to the World Class University it has become in 2020.
As the ‘mother’ university in Kenya, its history also provides a narrative of the evolution of university education in Kenya over the same period.
Major events, activities and policies changes that have shaped university education are presented in the context of the University of Nairobi’s growth. Throughout the text, a large collection of photographs brings to life the development of the university over the past 68 years.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of ...
Brief Summary
On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.
Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Emp...
Brief Summary
To those who travel there today, the West Indies are unspoiled paradise islands. Yet that image conceals a turbulent and shocking history. For some 200 years after 1650, the West Indies were the strategic center of the western world, witnessing one of the greatest power struggles of the age as Europeans made and lost immense fortunes growing and trading in sugar-a commodity so lucrative it became known as "white gold." As Matthew Parker vividly chronicles in his sweeping history, the sugar revolution made the English, in particular, a nation of voracious consumers-so much so that the wealth of her island colonies became the foundation and focus of England's commercial and imperial greatness, underpinning the British economy and ultimately fueling the Industrial Revolution.
Yet with the incredible wealth came untold misery: the horror endured by slaves, on whose backs the sugar empire was brutally built; the rampant disease that claimed the lives of one-third of all whites within three years of arrival in the Caribbean; the cruelty, corruption, and decadence of the plantation culture.
While sugar came to dictate imperial policy, for those on the ground the British West Indian empire presented a disturbing moral universe. Parker brilliantly interweaves the human stories of those since lost to history whose fortunes and fame rose and fell with sugar.
Their industry drove the development of the North American mainland states, and with it a slave culture, as the plantation model was exported to the warm, southern states. Broad in scope, rich in detail, The Sugar Barons freshly links the histories of Europe, the West Indies, and North America and reveals the full impact of the sugar revolution, the resonance of which is still felt today.
Visual Voices: The Works of Contempor...
Books, African Interest, Business, Dictionaries & References, Entrepreneurs, History, Home & Living, International Bestsellers
Brief Summary
Visual Voices: The Works Of Contemporary Artists In Kenya.
This book showcases the work of contemporary visual and other artists in a large aesthetically pleasing and well-designed book.
The presentation of the works does justice to selected great art in Kenya today. Susan Wakhungu-Githuku worked with a panel of Art connoisseurs and individuals knowledgeable on the Art scene to select and profile over 50 artists that amply demonstrate the range of Kenya’s artistic talent and flair.
Nairobi The City That Calls Your Name...
Books, African Interest, Business, Dictionaries & References, Entrepreneurs, History, Home & Living, International Bestsellers
THE CITY THAT CALLS YOUR NAME
There is something about Nairobi, the large and fast expanding East African city of cities that gets under the skin of even the most skeptical. What is it about this incongruous metropolis of diverse cultures, tribes, people, of new and old buildings, the clean and the shoddy, the unending traffic amidst the green parks of Uhuru Highway that beckons and lingers within? A city once known as the place of cool waters that now often bakes in the sun, a city that grew out of a Railway outpost, a city that unashamedly holds the largest slum in Africa and yet boasts an ever expanding modern skyline! The double volume of Photographic Slices and Personal Musings, compiled by mother and daughter Susan Wakhungu-Githuku & Natalie Githuku, is a first-of-a-kind and beautifully pays homage to this fascinating ‘city that calls your name’.
Nairobi is packaged in two volumes (Vol 1: Photographic Slices and Vol. 2: Personal Musings).
Makers Of Kenya’s History: Fiel...
Brief Summary
Dedan Kimathi is a story of the man who is now almost universally accepted as the true symbol of Kenya's liberation struggle. A warrior and military strategist to boot, Dedan Kimathi rose through the ranks to become the overall leader of the Mau Mau freedom fighters.
Since his death at the heart of the struggle, he has acquired, in the minds of many, legendary and mythical qualities.
Selfhood Divinity of the Clitoris by ...
What you need to know:
In his 802-page book: Selfhood; Divinity of the Clitoris, the retired minister of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) gives a rather revolutionary strategy to clean the Kenyan society of the vice in a country where one in three girls is at risk of the cut.
In his justification of the brazen title, Rev Njoya says he chose to use the word clitoris in its outright term to bring the message home to every man and woman on the effects of FGM.
Retired Rev. Timothy Njoya has taken a radical approach on ending Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya.
In his 802-page book: Selfhood; Divinity of the Clitoris, the retired minister of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) gives a rather revolutionary strategy to clean the Kenyan society of the vice in a country where one in three girls is at risk of the cut.
In his justification of the brazen title, Rev Njoya says he chose to use the word clitoris in its outright term to bring the message home to every man and woman on the effects of FGM.
PIECE OF MEAT
“Clitoris is made in the image of God and it is divine,” he explains.
“To cut a woman and remove the clitoris is like taking a woman for a piece of meat.”
But why is it so important that a clitoris remains in its whole?
Rev. Njoya has a divinity answer to that.
“A woman’s clitoris has more than 20,000 nerve endings, while a penis is wired with only 2,000 nerve endings,” he states.
“The clitoris is wired to pull 60kg of pelvic bones apart and pull them back. Without the nerve endings, the muscles cannot pull apart…that is why 20 per cent of Kenyan women die during child birth because their pelvic bones have nothing to pull them apart when they are circumcised.”
We Need to Talk About Africa: The Har...
Brief Summary
If you boil a kettle twice today, you will have used five times more electricity than a person in Mali uses in a whole year. How can that be possible?
Decades after the colonial powers withdrew Africa is still struggling to catch up with the rest of the world. When the same colonists withdrew from Asia there followed several decades of sustained and unprecedented growth throughout the continent. So what went wrong in Africa? And are we helping to fix it, or simply making matters worse?
In this provocative analysis, Tom Young argues that so much has been misplaced: our guilt, our policies, and our aid. Human rights have become a cover for imposing our values on others, our shiniest infrastructure projects have fuelled corruption and our interference in domestic politics has further entrenched conflict. Only by radically changing how we think about Africa can we escape this vicious cycle.
General History of Africa Complete Se...
This set brings together all 8 volumes of the groundbreaking Unesco General History of Africa, which are all now available again as paperbacks.
The series demonstrates the importance of African history from earliest pre-history, through the establishment of its ancient civilizations to the placing of Africa in the context of world history.
The growth and development of African historiography, once written records became more common, document the triumph of Islam, the extension of trading relations, cultural exchanges and human contacts, as well as the impact and consequences of the slave trade.
The European scramble for colonial territory in the 1880s is examined with a focus on the responses of Africans themselves to the economic and social aspects of colonial systems up to 1935, including the growth of anti-colonial movements and the strengthening of African political nationalism.
The contributions document how the continent moved from international conflict under foreign domination to struggles for political sovereignty and economic independence. The last (unabridged) volume 8 examines the challenges of nation-building and the socio-cultural changes affecting the newly independent nations.
Crossing Rivers An African Historical...
Brief Summary
Crossing Rivers: A young Maasai girl’s world is turned upside down when she is traded to an old Gikuyu woman in exchange for food, by her starving parents. Compelled to become a Gikuyu she goes through adoption and initiation rituals.
She falls in love but soon after her marriage her world, once again, changes forever. Crossing Rivers is Book One in The Agikuyu Series" Brilliantly written and uncompromising in its perspective, Crossing Rivers by Skeeter Wilson delivers us into the hands of the peoples of pre-colonial eastern Africa allowing us to learn at their fires, listen to a voice most have never heard, and appreciate a way of life all too often misrepresented." T.L. O’Hara
Author: Skeeter Wilson
The Dead Are Arising The Life of Malc...
Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X—all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.
The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures “from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.”
In tracing Malcolm X’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl’s death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm’s exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary.
With a biographer’s unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations—from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder “Fard Muhammad,” who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz’s 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X’s murder at the Audubon Ballroom.
Introduced by Payne’s daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father’s death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.
The Economists Tale A Consultant Enco...
Brief Summary
What really happens when the World Bank imposes its policies on a country? This is an insider's view of one aid-made crisis. Peter Griffiths was at the interface between government and the Bank.
In this ruthlessly honest, day by day account of a mission he undertook in Sierra Leone, he uses his diary to tell the story of how the World Bank, obsessed with the free market, imposed a secret agreement on the government, banning all government food imports or subsidies. The collapsing economy meant that the private sector would not import. Famine loomed. No ministry, no state marketing organization, no aid organization could reverse the agreement. It had to be a top-level government decision, whether Sierra Leone could afford to annoy minor World Bank officials.
This is a rare and important portrait of the aid world which insiders will recognize, but of which the general public seldom get a glimpse.
Kenya A Country in the Making 1880-19...
Brief Summary
This stunning collection of 720 photographs, many of them drawn from family archives and scrapbooks and all carefully restored, is one of the most important visual records of Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ever to have been published.
The early photographers captured the beauty and dangerous allure of life on this spectacular frontier: the ceremonies and traditional attire of the native people, the fantastic machinery used in construction of the Uganda Railway, the gradual development of trade on the coast and in the country's interior, the hardships of the East African Campaign during World War I, and the pioneering spirit of early European settlers and farmers. Many of the most famous names and places connected with Africa appear in these pages, including Karen Blixen's farm and Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Roosevelt on safari.
This is a book to delight anyone who has ever traveled to East Africa or been intrigued by its history. 720 photographs
Decolonising the Mind: The Politics o...
Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.
Across the world today, from the Americas to Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege while populism and nationalism are on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum offers an unexpected explanation: that there is a deep and inherent appeal to authoritarianism, to strongmen, and, especially, to one-party rule--that is, to political systems that benefit true believers, or loyal soldiers, or simply the friends and distant cousins of the Leader, to the exclusion of everyone else.
People, she argues, are not just ideological; they are also practical, pragmatic, opportunistic. They worry about their families, their houses, their careers. Some political systems offer them possibilities, and others don't. In particular, the modern authoritarian parties that have arisen within democracies today offer the possibility of success to people who do not thrive in the meritocratic, democratic, or free-market competition that determines access to wealth and power.
Drawing on reporting in Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Brazil; using historical examples including Stalinist central Europe and Nazi Germany; and investigating related phenomena: the modern conspiracy theory, nostalgia for a golden past, political polarization, and meritocracy and its discontents, Anne Applebaum brilliantly illuminates the seduction of totalitarian thinking and the eternal appeal of the one-party state.
