Rhodes covers decades of history that have shaped our place on the world stage without zooming out too far to be a history book and without zooming in too much to fit into "biography" territory. I loved his behind the scenes insights into foreign policy and the occasional Obama cameo, but what drove most of my interest were the interviews. I'll definitely be reading everything else he's written. ( )

By "the fall", Rhodes means the recent (post-Cold-War) world instances of descent into authoritarianism epitomized so far by the elevation of a "fascistic lunatic" (p 301) in the 2016 US presidential election. By "the world we've made", he partly means the toxic social media and online culture first created in the US. With input from some of his many international contacts, he delves into the cases of Hungary, Russia, and Hong Kong. As for the US, "to help fix what has gone wrong in the world, we have to begin fixing what has gone wrong with ourselves" (p 320). This, I'd say, would have to involve the Republican Party's death, the unlikeliness of which would suggest that the Biden years will just be a last-gasp bubble of enlightened government preceding a permanent descent into benightedness.

Like all human beings, we are fallen, able to do both good and evil. ~from After the Fall by Ben Rhodes

Ben Rhodes calls After the Fall a book of stories, the story of his journey from idealist patriot to questioning the myths we share, from working with President Obama to seeing their legacy dismantled.

Endeavoring to understand the rise of authoritarianism and nationalism across the world, he tells the stories of people who fight for democratic rights in increasingly authoritarian countries' and how they are imprisoned, tortured, poisoned, and silenced.

And he tells the story of how America has veered from its ideals and helped to create the world we live in today: how unconstrained capitalism destroyed the global economy in 2008, eroding faith in democracy and capitalism; how 'forever wars' eroded individual rights and created ethnic hate: how love of money trumped concern for human rights.: how technology impacted us for better and for worse; how a pandemic revealed "our most profound failings."
...Values like equality are no longer the business of governments around the world, they have been left to individuals to defend.~ from After the Fall by Ben Rhodes
Rhodes sees the cycle "between autocracy and democracy, the powerful and the oppressed, corrupted system and the uncorrupted masses," but holds onto the hope that, overall, the world arcs toward justice.

We have the opportunity, he writes, to "make capitalism about something more than money, to make national security about something other than subjugation, to make technology work better as a tool for human enlightenment. To learn from others around the world instead of thinking that is is always we who have something to teach them."

I have read other books about these subjects. What sets this one apart is Rhodes' heart and passion, his openness about his journey, and his empathy for the resistance leaders he meets.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )