Anne Applebaum
The Strategist
The long view, patient, analytical, playing several moves ahead.
Anne Applebaum reads as The Strategist because she treats the crises of liberal democracy as problems to be mapped, not merely lamented. Her Pulitzer-winning history of the Gulag and her later writing on democratic backsliding in Poland, Hungary, and the United States function as frameworks rather than commentary, cutting through ideological noise to name what is happening and why. When clarity on authoritarianism is scarce, her analysis supplies it.
“I have a goal that is to remind people of why democracy is important, and to pay attention to the ways in which it's declining so that we can fight back.”
“I had a realization in about 2014-2015 that I was living through a period of history myself. There was a historical shift happening around me and I felt the need to start recording it as a kind of eyewitness.”
“I don't believe in historical inevitability. What happens tomorrow and next year is completely dependent on what we do today — whether the United States survives as a democracy depends on choices Americans make.”
The Diary of a CEO: “Pulitzer Prize Historian: You Won't Notice Until It's Too Late!”
LISTEN AT THE SOURCE ↗THE RECORD IS CHECKABLE