The book is out! Politics, A Survivor’s Guide is about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s also about identity, migration, nationalism (and how it is different to patriotism), the forces of belonging and trust that bind us to a political system, the feelings of dread and exile that spread when the bonds break down and how to recover.
You can order Politics, A Survivor’s Guide from Amazon, or if you prefer Waterstones. But your local independent bookshop will be grateful for the custom.
The Guardian has called it “a masterful account of contemporary malaise“. The Observer says it is written with “elegance and honesty … a voice of reason in a polarised world.” The Irish Times says “astute” and “packed with insight” by “one of the finest modern political journalists,” which is the kind of compliment I’ll take in full confidence that I don’t deserve it.
There are chapters about ideology, Europe, Brexit, culture wars, conspiracy theory, polarisation, radicalisation, the way those forces are accelerated by digital technology, the ways political journalism fails to meet the challenges of populism. It’s also about the need to keep those things in some historical perspective; everything you need to know about, in fact, plus, neuroscience, some jokes and a dose of cardiology.
There are also some events coming up where I’ll be speaking about the book, politics and how to survive it. There’s a list here.
Rafael Behr 