Escalating climate change, democratic decline, the rise of far-right populism, and the dominance of the neoliberal economic order are indisputably some of the defining features of the contemporary world. But are those trends interrelated and, if yes, how and with what effects? In a timely and thought-provoking book, Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, Eve Darian-Smith offers some intriguing answers to these important questions. In an engaging narrative style, Darian-Smith centers her analysis on recent wildfires in Australia, Brazil, and the United States to illustrate how the rise of free-market authoritarianism exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions while hampering the ability of societies to cope with the effects of global warming. The catastrophic wildfires are carefully selected as an empirical case, given that they are among the most tangible and dreadful manifestations of global warming. Wildfires, which disproportionally affect marginalized groups, according to Darian-Smith are either openly encouraged or, at best, ignored by free-market authoritarian leaders, depicted by the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

In the opening chapter of the book (“Fire as Omen”), Darian-Smith sets the stage by inviting readers to think about, through, and