Pankaj Mishra makes a pretty solid case made in "
Age of Anger" that the rise of Fascism and Authoritarianism seen these days is due to globalization and, more importantly, income inequality that has led to massive
ressentiment. The same kind of feelings of abandonment and listlessness that swept through the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that Rousseau tried to articulate. He draws a direct line tying together Trump and Brexit and Isis and Narendra Modi, and he does so in an extremely compelling way.
I hesitate to go so far as to say that all of these things stem from the same root of contemporary nihilism, but there is a lot to be said for the connections made and I do think that in order to understand our present and the seemingly chaotic anger and xenophobia and racism we need to dig back into the past and especially the authors and philosophers of the 18th and 19th century. I also agree with his conclusion, that something terrible is inevitably going to happen if the course we've laid is continually followed.
If you have the time and the patience, read Age of Anger and then follow up on some of the bibliography.
Also, read "The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman. It's a autobiography of the late 19th and early 20th century that has haunting echoes in today's world.