Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols
Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols
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Our Own Worst Enemy
The Assault from within on Modern Democracy

Author: Tom Nichols

Narrator: Tom Nichols

Unabridged: 7 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Kalorama

Published: 08/19/2021


Synopsis

Over the past three decades, citizens of democracies who claim to value freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law have increasingly embraced illiberal politicians and platforms. Democracy is in trouble—but who is really to blame?

In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves. Nichols traces the illiberalism of the twenty-first century to the growth of unchecked narcissism, rising standards of living, global peace, and a resistance to change. Ordinary citizens, laden with grievances, have joined forces with political entrepreneurs who thrive on the creation of rage rather than on the encouragement of civic virtue and democratic cooperation. While it will be difficult, Nichols argues that we need to defend democracy by resurrecting the virtues of altruism, compromise, stoicism, and cooperation—and by recognizing how good we've actually had it in the modern world.


Author Bio

Tom Nichols is professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College, a columnist for USA Today, and a contributing writer at the Atlantic. He is the author of The Death of Expertise, No Use: Nuclear Weapons and US National Security, and Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War. He is also an instructor at the Harvard Extension School and an adjunct professor at the US Air Force School of Strategic Force Studies. He is a former aide in the US Senate and has been a Fellow of the International Security Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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