Drawing from personal experience as a German child growing up during the rise of Hitler, and later living in other countries whose democracies slid into autocracy in similar ways, Mack's Parallels in Autocracy is compellingly insightful and deeply chilling. Reflecting on our species' self-destructive tendency to relinquish freedom to autocrats, the author finds not only tragedy, but also compassion for the human condition and hope. "... an eclectic combination of memoir and political analysis ... astute and historically rigorous throughout. Mack couples his recollections with political commentary that assesses the terrible damage that autocracy does to civil society, and how an elected demagogue can nullify the very same democratic mechanism that ushered him into power. ... An often moving recollection of despotism and a lucid analysis of its genesis." -Kirkus Review