Includes bibliographical references and index.

We live in an age of fury and confusion. A new crisis erupts before the last one has finished: financial crisis, Brexit, pandemic, war in Ukraine, energy shortages. Prime Ministers come and go but politics stays divided and toxic. It is tempting to switch off the news, tune out and hope things will get back to normal. Except, this is the new normal, and our democracy can only work if enough people stay engaged without getting enraged. But how? To answer that question, journalist Rafael Behr takes the reader on a personal journey from despair at the state of politics to hope that there is a better way of doing things, with insights drawn from three decades as a political commentator and foreign correspondent.

Have you ever turned away from the news in despair? Or do you sometimes scroll through socialmedia and come away angry, frustrated, listless and afraid? This is a book about the toxic atmosphere ofmodern politics that makes it sometimes hard to breathe; the damage it does to democracy ... and theantidote.