The demise of liberal Europe has inspired so many academics to get writing that it can be hard to know where to begin. Among the mass of obituary writers and pall- bearers, Ivan Krastev stands out because, a Bulgarian, he senses the mood on Europe’s periphery.

After Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, £14.99; Tablet price £13.49) blames the usual suspects for the “death” of the European project, such as complacent elites, mismanaged immigration and populism. He believes that the multicultural West never grasped the mindset east of Vienna. Eastern Europeans will never accept mass migration because for them “a return to diversity is a return to troubled times”.