In the organizer's words:

2026 - 250 years of American democracy. And Donald Trump's second year back in power: a historic anniversary meets a historic turning point. As the United States celebrates a quarter of a millennium of the constitutional state, President Trump continues his authoritarian transformation - with an agenda that is more far-reaching, strategic and determined than ever before. In her first book, the sought-after transatlantic political expert Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook shows how American democracy is being deliberately undermined: through the systematic weakening of the separation of powers, ideological control of education and the media, legal reinterpretation of powers and targeted intimidation of political opponents. What many dismissed as chaos or isolated incidents was in fact part of a long-term strategy - and that is precisely what we overlooked.

But Clüver Ashbrook goes further: she shows how the same patterns are taking hold in Europe - including in Germany. The illusion that liberal democracies are automatically stable has blinded us to the points of attack from within. It is precisely where institutions are weak, education systems unprotected and the public sphere fragmented that authoritarian strategies take hold particularly easily.

This book is a political early warning system. And a handbook for democratic self-defense. It identifies the weaknesses that populists systematically exploit. It shows what lessons we need to learn from the American case. And it makes it clear what needs to be done now - at a political, legal and social level. So that we don't have to look back in a few years and say, precisely because of our own historical responsibility: We too could have known.

Please register via the following link: https://eveeno.com/143189972.

Organizer: Amerikahaus Munich, Brandstätter Verlag

Price information:

Regular admission is 10 euros per person. Admission is free for pupils and students up to the age of 25 and members of the Amerikahaus Association.