Is the West Collapsing?

The West is in the throes of its most serious crisis. Heinrich August Winkler analyzes the reasons and explains the contexts. In this clearly articulated book, the famous author of A History of the West, provides a political compass enabling us to find our way through this confusing and dangerous crisis cluster. Is the West collapsing? Floods of refugees, Brexit, authoritarian regimes in the EU (Orbán, Kaczyński) and on its borders (Putin, Erdoğan), and on top of it all, an American President who is causing worldwide instability—Europe and America are facing so many challenges at the same time that a rather apocalyptic mood now prevails. Written as a quasi “history of revocation,” the most knowledgeable expert on the West gives a step-by-step account of recent events—and doesn’t back down from making clear judgements on what went wrong, what still works, and what urgently needs to change if the West wants to survive this crisis. Heinrich August Winkler is one of the most prominent historians in Germany. His works Der lange Weg nach Westen (The Long Road West) und Geschichte des Westens (A History of the West) are widely read bestsellers. From 1991 until he became emeritus, he was professor of contemporary history at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2014 he received the Europa Prize for political culture from the Hans Ringier Stiftung and in 2016 he was the recipient of the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding.