Editorial

A summer reading list for those tracing the fractures of empire, freedom, and the European condition.

1. The Switchman – Geert Mak

A panoramic narrative of the 1930s–40s, where history hinges on fragile decisions.

The book global shifts as Great Depression, New Deal, Spanish Civil War, World War II. With focus on critical figures—particularly Harry Hopkins and Franklin Roosevelt—and key policy decisions Presents that moment as a moral turning point for Europe and America. As flashbacks of current times?

2. The Road to Unfreedom – Timothy Snyder

From Ilyin to information warfare, Snyder traces the ideological roots of Russia’s war. It gives background to understand why Ukraine was targeted — and why the West looked away. Although how Snyder takes his conclusions is sometimes “un-European “.

3. Autocracy, Inc. – Anne Applebaum

A global system of kleptocrats, enablers, and soft-power decay. Applebaum names the architecture — and the complicity — of modern authoritarianism. It is reality all around us.

4. My Russia: War or Peace? – Mikhail Shishkin

A Russian writer breaks with the regime, not with the culture. Shishkin writes like a man mourning his homeland, yet refusing its collapse into lies.

5. Alkibiades – Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

A story on Ancient Greece and the end of democracy, with parallels to our time. I have not read it myself to be honest, but it is high on my list. If it is written in the same style as the authors other books, this book will make you uncomfortable, frustrated, ashamed, laughing – in random order. I should ask the writer himself to open the curtains in his mind a bit to guide the reader.

6. Putin’s People – Catherine Belton

How the KGB morphed into a global oligarchy. Belton follows the money, the friendships, the silence — from Leningrad to London.