How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship
Written by Ece Temelkuran
Narrated by Ece Temelkuran
4.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
‘It couldn’t happen here’
Ece Temelkuran heard reasonable people in Britain say it the night of the Brexit vote.
She heard reasonable people in America say it the night Trump’s election was soundtracked by chants of ‘Build that wall.’
She heard reasonable people in Turkey say it as Erdoğan rigged elections, rebuilt the economy around cronyism, and labelled his opposition as terrorists.
How to Lose a Country is an impassioned plea, 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, in order to define a global pattern, and arm the reader with the tools to root it out.
Proposing alternative, global answers to the pressing – and too often paralysing – political questions of our time, Temelkuran explores the insidious idea of ‘real people’, the infantilisation of language and debate, the way laughter can prove a false friend, and the dangers of underestimating one’s opponent. She weaves memoir, history and clear-sighted argument into an urgent and eloquent defence of democracy.
No longer can the reasonable comfort themselves with ‘it couldn’t happen here.’ It is happening. And soon it may be too late.
Ece Temelkuran
Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning Turkish novelist and political commentator, whose journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times,, Frankfurter Allgemeine and Der Spiegel. She won the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book award for her novel Women Who Blow on Knots, and the Ambassador of New Europe Award for her book Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed How to Lose a Country.
Related to How to Lose a Country
Related audiobooks
Everyone Versus Racism: A Letter to My Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Erdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After the End of History: Conversations with Francis Fukuyama Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration-and Why It's Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wealth of Refugees: How Displaced People Can Build Economies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsResolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Change Happens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Rig an Election Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think Like a White Man: Conquering the World . . . While Black Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moneyless Society: The Next Economic Evolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFuture Publics: Democracy, Deliberation, and Future-Regarding Collective Action Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What is Populism? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fractured Continent: Europe's Crises and the Fate of the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Futures: Life After Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Geopolitics Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World Peace: And How We Can Achieve It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Global Police State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Propaganda For You
You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolitical Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Psychology: How Brainwashing, Narcissism, and Persuasion Influence Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Propaganda Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Propaganda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What WE Lost: Inside the Attack on Canada’s Largest Children’s Charity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'm Right and You're an Idiot - 2nd Edition: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Real Americans: National Identity, Violence, and the Constitution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood - and America - Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Psychology: The Power of Psychopathy, Control, and Manipulation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Image Control: Art, Fascism, and the Right to Resist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Propagandists' Playbook: How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Psychology: Seeing through Manipulation, Blackmail, and Psychotic Mind Control Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Need New Stories: The Myths that Subvert Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selling Hate: Marketing the Ku Klux Klan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How They Are Washing Your Brain and Controling Your Mind: Explaining Propaganda and Thought Modification Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outrage, Inc.: How the Liberal Mob Ruined Science, Journalism, and Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Z Generation: Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist Youth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dark Psychology: How to Avoid Manipulation and Become a Human Lie Detector Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro's Brazil Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for How to Lose a Country
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/54.5 stars. This was an excellent analysis of how even (or maybe especially) countries that think “it* could never happen here; it only happens in other countries” can move swiftly towards it happening to them. However, as the book neared its conclusion I was hoping there would be more solid actions to take to stop or at least oppose the steady slide that a country might make towards fascism and it doesn’t really explicitly provide those action steps for resistance so, that was a little unsatisfying.
* “it” being fascism, dictatorship, broken democracy, failed state, etc.