Several of the lessons stress the importance of forging bonds and norms that are beyond the reach of the state (Lesson 14: Establish a private life Lesson 12: Make eye contact and small talk). If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so.” Control of information-and therefore the cocoon of an alternative reality-has long been the foundation of the Kim dynasty.Ĭan Snyder’s lessons be read in reverse, not as a way to halt the slide into semi-democratic rule but to undermine consolidated authoritarian rule? Some of the lessons are intriguing in this regard, starting with the importance of civil society. Snyder argues that “to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. Perhaps the most damning indictment comes in Lesson 10: Believe in truth. Snyder also notes how “modern tyranny is terror management,” sustained by a world of endless threats justifying emergency measures (Lesson 18: Be calm when the unthinkable arrives). Victor Klemperer, for example, noticed “how Hitler’s language rejected legitimate opposition: the people always meant some people and not others…., encounters were always struggles…and any attempt to understand the world in a different way was defamation of the leader…” (Lesson 9: Be kind to our language). Narratives, and resistance to them, play an important role in Snyder’s account. Yet the characterizations of consolidated authoritarian rule are the backdrop for the lessons, and as a result there is plenty in the book that is of relevance to understanding North Korea as well. ![]() The first lesson, for example, is “do not obey in advance,” noting how Austrians who were not Nazis acquiesced to the Anschluss. ![]() On Tyranny is written to citizens of a democratic country under stress, and puts a lot of the onus on being alert and standing up to democratic erosion. The book is remarkable in part for its very premise: that the United States is at risk of backsliding (my take on these issues can be found in joint work with Robert Kaufman Mickey, Levitsky and Way at Foreign Affairs have the most chilling analysis). This is the long view we all need, given to us right now by a leading expert, via innovative and immediate publishing.Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale and author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, has written a remarkable short book on tyranny. Here we have eight hours of analysis, spoken only from notes, that elucidates the questions everyone is asking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ![]() Williams and Brown said: “What Tim has achieved with this extended audiobook is nothing short of amazing. With forays into distant and more recent history and speaking only from notes, he clarifies both the causes and the stakes of the present war. The expanded audiobook edition, including more than eight hours of new content recorded in response to the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, combines the original On Tyranny – twenty lessons on how history can instruct our response to the rise of tyranny around the world today – with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war.Ī leading historian of eastern Europe and author of six books on Ukraine’s history and politics, Snyder explains the connections between events in Russia and Ukraine and the threats to democracy around the world.
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