Description

How to Lose a Country is a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep.

Award-winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world from Eastern Europe to South America, in order to arm the reader with the tools to recognise it and take action.

Weaving memoir, history and clear-sighted argument, Temelkuran proposes alternative answers to the pressing – and too often paralysing – political questions of our time. How to Lose a Country is an exploration of the insidious ideas at the core of these movements and an urgent, eloquent defence of democracy.

This 2024 edition includes a new foreword by the author.

Publisher Review

Highly readable and vibrates with outrage * * The Times * * A brilliant analysis of how democracy can be starved to death. It's one of the most important books anyone could read at the moment, when public institutions are slowly being corrupted wherever we look -- PHILIP PULLMAN This is essential -- MARGARET ATWOOD on Twitter The burning topic of today: populism. Vivid, visionary, terrifyingly familiar, this book is essential reading for everyone on planet Earth -- ANDREW SEAN GREER How to Lose a Country is a succinct and hard-hitting explainer on the rise of populism in Turkey and elsewhere, with a running refrain to western nations that consider themselves free from the threat of authoritarianism: this can happen to you * * Financial Times * * This book is a fierce mapping of the preceding stages of dissolution. It begins with the creation of populist movements. [ . . . ] The intensity of the call for political engagement and the fluency of expression make this an urgent read. Those looking for such steadfastness should begin here * * Irish Times * * Ece Temelkuran elegantly and wittily demolishes our most enduring and damaging political illusions. But she also cannily intuits and eloquently describes our deepest unmet needs for justice, peace and stability. Anyone rattled and disorientated by the political earthquakes of recent years ought to read her, and find solid ground again -- PANKAJ MISHRA When I left government, the first thing I read was How to Lose a Country and I couldn't put it down. If you look at America from the outside in, it's much clearer than looking at it from the eye of the storm. To me, Ece's book remains the best guide to understanding the blend of right-wing populism and strongman authoritarianism that has metastasized around the world. Thanks to Ece's wise, accessible, personal and erudite book, I have been able to see much more clearly what's been happening to American democracy and to politics in so many countries around the world -- BEN RHODES This is a keenly observed and passionately written book. Read it or be prepared to lose your country -- RABIH ALAMEDDINE A stunning, sane and intimate chronicle of a world gone nuts. An urgent whisper in our ears about our modern dictators and their collaborators -- MOHAMMED HANIF