Books by Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a historian and a staff writer at the Atlantic. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Agora Institute, where she co-directs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st-century propaganda. She specializes in Eastern Europe and Russia. Anne Applebaum’s books have won a number of prestigious prizes and feature on many Five Books reading lists.
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
by Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum provides a thoroughly documented survey of the way in which autocratic regimes around the world are involved in deep webs of corruption and impunity. She achieves this with a cool analytical tone that never lapses into rage; that leaves much for readers to feel and express themselves.
Twilight of Democracy
by Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum's latest book, Twilight of Democracy, is part polemic, part memoir, and tracks how and why so many people she knew (eg Viktor Orban, who has been prime minister of Hungary for the past decade) abandoned liberal democracy and became far right populists. Applebaum was a foreign correspondent in eastern Europe at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and continued to cover the region for many years.
We interviewed Anne Applebaum on the best Memoirs of Communism.
Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine
by Anne Applebaum
***Winner of the 2017 Duff Cooper Prize (for nonfiction)***
***Winner of the 2018 Lionel Gelber Prize (for a nonfiction book about international affairs)***
Red Famine is Anne Applebaum’s prizewinning book about the Holodomor (1932-3) a “term derived from the Ukrainian words for hunger—holod—and extermination—mor.” Nearly 4 million Ukrainians died as Stalin deliberately set out to make a famine caused by collectivization worse.
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56
by Anne Applebaum
***Winner of the 2013 Cundill History Prize***
In Iron Curtain Anne Applebaum traces the imposition of Soviet totalitarianism on Eastern Europe in the decade after World War II.
Gulag: A History
by Anne Applebaum
***Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction***
***Winner of the 2003 Duff Cooper Prize (for nonfiction)***
“To see what Stalin did to Russia, the best book is Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History. Based on detailed archival research, she tells of the sudden arrests, the sham trials, the gruelling transportation, the hardships of labour camps, starvation and disease – and also the way in which modern Russia is unwilling to come to terms with them” Read more...
The best books on Contemporary Russia
Edward Lucas, Journalist
“In this book, Anne Applebaum goes into the area between the old Russian Empire, Germany and the old Turkish Empire, and sees how it has developed. In 1800, there wasn’t what I would call a Ukrainian – or still less a Belarusian – nation. They become nations when their educated classes came together and formed a nationality, more or less late in the 19th century. “ Read more...
Robert Conquest, Historian
Interviews with Anne Applebaum
The best books on Memoirs of Communism, recommended by Anne Applebaum
The traumas of the 20th century hit Eastern Europe hard – a region of changing borders, uncertain identity, and shattering of moral norms. The journalist and communism expert selects books that capture the spirit of the age.
Interviews where books by Anne Applebaum were recommended
The best books on Communism, recommended by Robert Conquest
Esteemed historian of the Soviet Union recommends five books on Communism, from novels and personal narratives to theoretical works.
The best books on Contemporary Russia, recommended by Edward Lucas
Journalist and author Edward Lucas explains how a revanchist Russia can be traced back to Putin’s sense of betrayal after the collapse of the USSR
-
1
Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show
by Jonathan Karl -
2
Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could
by Adam Schiff -
3
How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky -
4
Twilight of Democracy
by Anne Applebaum -
5
Peril
by Bob Woodward & Robert Costa
The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021, recommended by Larry Sabato
The Best Politics Books To Read in 2021, recommended by Larry Sabato
In many Western countries, citizens have long taken living in a democracy for granted. The last decade has changed all that, with fledgling democracies veering back to authoritarianism and even the most stable democracies being shaken by populist movements. Here, political scientist Larry J. Sabato turns the spotlight on the American republic, long a beacon for democracy around the globe, but now suffering its own internal turmoil. He recommends the best politics books to read in 2021, focusing on the United States.
-
1
Twilight of Democracy
by Anne Applebaum -
2
The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson -
3
The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream
by Richard Alba -
4
Self-Portrait in Black and White: Family, Fatherhood and Rethinking Race
by Thomas Chatterton Williams -
5
A Promised Land
by Barack Obama
The Best Politics Books of 2020, recommended by Yascha Mounk
The Best Politics Books of 2020, recommended by Yascha Mounk
Despite the challenge of authoritarian populism and a new divisiveness in political debate in many countries around the world there are reasons for optimism, argues political scientist Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy. He talks us through his selection of the best politics books of 2020.
-
1
How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy
by Daniel Kaufman, Massimo Pigliucci & Skye C Cleary -
2
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
by Gaia Vince -
3
Slavery and Bristol
by GM Best -
4
War: How Conflict Shaped Us
by Margaret MacMillan -
5
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by Daniel Susskind -
6
Twilight of Democracy
by Anne Applebaum
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020, recommended by Sophie Roell
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020, recommended by Sophie Roell
As the world went into lockdown early in 2020, many of us without frontline jobs and lucky enough not to fall sick with Covid-19 found more time to read than usual. The sudden change to a slower gear also left more room to reflect on the state of the world and our place as humans in it. Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, takes us through her personal choice of the best nonfiction books of 2020.
-
1
At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China
by Edward Wong -
2
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
by Anne Applebaum -
3
Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence
by Mishal Husain -
4
Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
by Victoria Amelina -
5
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash -
6
The Coming Storm: A Journey into the Heart of the Conspiracy Machine
by Gabriel Gatehouse
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
The Best Politics Books of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
From conspiracy theories wreaking havoc in US politics to poignant memoirs of painful events around the globe, the books shortlisted for the 2025 Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious awards for writing about politics, have been announced. These are the eight books shortlisted for the ‘Orwell Prize for Political Writing,’ awarded annually to a nonfiction book. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired by UK diplomat and former ambassador to the US Kim Darroch.
