In 1991, Michael McFaul felt that he was on the edge of utopia. Russia was free of communism, and America was free to usher in a new era of liberal internationalist hegemony. The arc of history had never bent so far toward justice. Over thirty years later, those dreams have crashed back to Earth. And in Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, McFaul seeks to put together how it all went wrong. His answer is unsurprising: an international movement of conservatives, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sought to destroy democracy. With President Donald Trump’s election victories, they have nearly succeeded. Hope lies in a vigorous counterattack from the liberal internationalists. It would be very easy for conservatives and nationalists to dismiss his book as a musty last gasp of the post–Cold War liberal elite. His work might well be the literary equivalent of a Japanese soldier still fighting in 1975. But it should not be ignored…