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    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

    By Timothy Snyder

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    About this ebook

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)

    “Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings.”—Masha Gessen

    The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.

    On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrown
    Release dateFeb 28, 2017
    ISBN9780804190121
    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    Author

    Timothy Snyder

    Timothy Snyder es titular de la cátedra Housum de Historia en la Universidad de Yale, y fellow permanente del Instituto de Ciencias Humanas de Viena. Se doctoró en Oxford y ha sido investigador en las universidades de París, Viena, Varsovia y Harvard. Sus libros anteriores recibieron destacados premios. Es autor de Tierras de sangre. Europa entre Hitler y Stalin (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2011), traducido a trece idiomas, que recibió doce premios, entre ellos el Premio Hannah Arendt de Pensamiento Político, el Premio Leipzig para la Comprensión Europea y el Premio Emerson de Humanidades de la Academia Americana de las Artes y las Letras. Ayudó a Tony Judt a escribir una historia temática de las ideas políticas y de los intelectuales en política, Pensar el siglo XX (2012). Sus artículos académicos han aparecido en revistas como Past and Present y Journal of Cold War Studies, y también ha escrito en The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation y The New Republic, así como en The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune , The Wall Street Journal y otros periódicos. Es miembro del Comité de Conciencia del Memorial del Holocausto de Estados Unidos y del Consejo Asesor del Instituto Yivo de Investigaciones Judías. Sus libros El príncipe rojo. Las vidas secretas de un archiduque de Habsburgo (2014), Tierra negra. El Holocausto como historia y como advertencia (2015), Sobre la tiranía (2017) y El camino hacia la no libertad (2018) han sido publicados por Galaxia Gutenberg.

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    • 5/5
      Maybe This Can Help You
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    • 5/5
      This short book by Timothy Snyder is brilliant. The lessons are clear, and it is up to us to imbibe them and implement them. I like the book because it is short and pithy, with no words wasted. Many authors may have given in to the temptation to write a long tome with many examples. In such cases, the lessons get buried underneath mountains of word salad.
      I am glad Timothy Snyder did not give in to the temptation: the book is better.
      And hey, if you want to buy the book, buy the illustrated edition!
    • 5/5
      Snyder is a respected historian and lays out warnings: post-truth is pre-fascism. But also provides information on how to resist: don't quietly go along with what you think the regime wants before it even asks. Also, be weird because authoritarianism requires conformity and if you are weird, if you don't conform, you are less likely to begin believing the lies of the regime, but also resist it.

      The book is both practical and terrifying and should absolutely be read by everyone in the United States who cares about democracy and the current political crisis in this country.
    • 4/5
      In response to the election of Trump as President, Snyder suggests 20 things that can be done to undermine the evolution of the US into a tyrannical state.
    • 3/5
      Sound advice that almost seems like it is was padded at the end.
    • 3/5
      Are you still thinking it can't happen here? Learn how it has happened "there" in the past.
    • 5/5
      Essential reading.
    • 3/5
      Recommended by a friend. I liked parts of it, but a lot of it just seemed kind of fuzzy. Good ideas about how to resist governmental authoritarianism, I guess, but it seemed like just common sense in a gauzy poetical covering.
    • 5/5
      A must read.
    • 5/5
      It has become a cliché to quote George Santayana's dictum that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It is unfortunate - if not tragic - to hear history as an important part of school curricula spurned. Worse yet, as author and Yale historian Timothy Snyder tells us in his new book, "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" (Tim Duggan Books, 2017), democracy is in danger if we do not take historical lessons to heart.

      "The Founding Fathers," writes Snyder, "tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from the experience."

      "On Tyranny" is a short book but is one which the reader should reread again and again. Snyder packs a lot of warning into his words, words that need to seep in for us to become fully awake to our clear and present danger. There are twenty chapters, or "lessons," each of which is titled with a maxim: "Do not obey in advance." "Take responsibility for the face of the world." "Believe in truth." "Listen for dangerous words." And, perhaps the most chilling, "Be calm when the unthinkable arrives." Each chapter is introduced with a few remarks about how to put that chapter's maxim into action.

      We must learn from the mistakes of the twentieth century, Snyder admonishes us. We must not take democracy for granted, or fall victim to naïve optimism that because democracy is so important, it is not vulnerable. Wake up, says Snyder. The wolves are at the door.

      It would be impractical to comment on every one of Snyder's lessons, so allow me to select one as an illustration: "Investigate." Snyder encourages us all to investigate. "The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds. The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant." And truth? Snyder does not mince words: "Like Hitler, the president used the word lies to mean statements of fact not to his liking, and presented journalism as a campaign against himself." What is our responsibility as citizens? "Since in the age of the internet we are all publishers, each of us bears some private responsibility for the public's sense of truth." Snyder says to verify information ourselves, and carefully choose trustworthy journalists.

      Snyder's message is loud and clear: we must defend democracy, we must do it now, and there are ways to accomplish that. I can't imagine how anyone could not take this to heart.
    • 4/5
      This should be required reading for all Americans who care about the Constitution and our current state of political affairs.
    • 4/5
      This little book is useful and helpful and answers the all-important question: what can I do? I have criticized other books and shows on various topics for not giving an answer or any suggestions. This book is all answers and explanations.

      Of course, I am reading this in 2021 and it is specifically addressed to citizens under the 45th president--and it refers to "the president" as such. This is not so much a criticism, but we could definitely use a new edition! Because the threat is still very real.

      Otherwise, my only critique is that his examples are all European--and he mostly refers to 1930s Germany and Putin's Russia. The author is a historian of European history and serves on a Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee. Or his he using examples he thinks most Americans "know", and countries closest to the United States in...what? Because what about using Chile or Argentina as examples? Or any of the many other countries that have gone from democracy to tyranny?
    • 5/5
      Great nuggets of wisdom to discern methods used by those inclined to be tyrants and how to head it off protecting our fragile democracy, especially in light of Trump's attempted coup d'état on 11/6/2020.
    • 3/5
      There are excellent parallels to modern issues within these pages, but very little organizing principle. It begins as a warning on general terms and then quickly focuses on the American presidency. Overall the sentiment is good and the read is quick but there's not enough substance to my tastes.
    • 5/5
      Snyder's eloquence, accessibility, and academic authority shows how comfortably the current state of US affairs rests in parallel to the fascist regimes in Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and other countries of the 20th century. His message is highly quotable and motivating. This is a warning; this is fodder for your resistance, your conversations with supporters of our current government and those who urge banalities such as "This will pass," or "It's only four years," or "But at least we have a system of checks and balances firmly in place" (a complacency that Snyder succinctly censures). As many others are echoing, I, too, read this in a sitting, and I also read it within the context of the peaceful protests in my own city of St. Louis of the brutal disregard of and unchecked police violence against black people being met with unchecked police violence and a controversially-elected mayor who is as yet refusing to take a firm stance against this violence. I think the parallels here are convincing as well.

      With this in mind, what I think is maybe most effective in this book is its focus on Nazi Germany. In my conversations with people who don't understand "what all the fuss is about," it seems like they (who aren't out-and-out Klan sympathizers and/or neo Nazis) all agree that Hitler was bad. A lot of headway I've seemed to make in talking with complacent ones has been in discussing these historic traumas that have been subsequently romanticized by white, Christian Americans and relating them to current events and the suppression of other marginalized peoples. Snyder will help you formulate your discussions.

      This text strikes me as most vital to white folks--we are the ones responsible for the United States as it exists today. For those of us who are already in the streets, who are already having direct conversations with complacent folks, who are donating to and volunteering time with civil liberty charities, who use our professions and personal time to speak out against tyranny--On Tyranny will provide us with more specifics to use in our work and to remind us to keep fighting for justice because there is always more work to do--within ourselves and our communities. For those who have been sitting in complacency, who have been unsure whether or how they should resist, I hope they come away with a comprehensive understanding of the book's message and a more vocal stance. (I become more disillusioned each day that alternative facts assholes will ever be willing to look beyond their own insecurities. They are just fine with tyranny.)

      I checked this out from the library and can't wait to return it so that it goes to the next person to spread the word. I desperately want to own a copy and mark it up. And buy another copy. And give it away to someone. And buy another. And give it away. Ad finitum.
    • 5/5
      Sobering, finally read in a day after having it nearby for a couple years. I fear that 2022 and especially 2024 will prove a further test than 2020 did, as Republicans are no longer hiding their contempt for election officials and the will of the electorate.
    • 3/5
      I'm all for any diatribe against Donald Trump (though he weirdly goes unnamed in the text of the book), even if it is a bit fragmented and, by necessity, so deeply steeped Godwin's Law. Written after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it's chilling how close Snyder's predictions came to fruition in the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
    • 2/5
      Made of hyperbole and hypocrisy. Stay salty.
    • 5/5
      “You should read this.”

      Those simple words ran across my mind as I finished page 126 of this wonderful book. I am no political scientist though I follow current events tightly. This book, written in 2017 in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump, reminds us how fragile history can be. By looking at the challenges of the present, it looks at how democracy was subverted by tyranny in the twentieth century.

      Snyder provides twenty lessons to readers based upon global failures of the 1900s – for example, the rise of Nazi Germany, the rise of Stalinist Russia, and the rise of Putin’s Russia. Make no mistake, this book, despite its title evoking the twentieth century, is thoroughly grounded in twenty-first-century events. It uses those current events as a prism to recall prior history.

      This book is readable and accessible to the masses. Much as The Federalist Papers did for the US Constitution, this book attempts to do for 2016-2020. It seeks to remind us of the choices we face in the voting booth and in our lives and encourages us to make those choices with confidence. Snyder, by trade a professor of history at Yale, seeks to imprint upon us the fragility of history. As with the twentieth century, only a few wrong decisions can get us far off course.

      Snyder concludes by discussing the “politics of inevitability” that seemed to envelop American discourse in the early twenty-first century. “Democracy will inevitably triumph,” these false words told us. The rise of authoritarianism in America laid bare this false creed. To remind us of our duty, the author – in a sort of jeremiad – calls us to return to the study of history in an attempt to make more history. Citing Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Snyder calls the now-informed reader to embrace the challenges of the present. Will we listen?
    • 5/5
      A crucial book for our present times, reminding us that the collapse of a democracy including ours can happen and that it takes complicity for that to happen. The 20 lessons suggest ways that we, the ordinary persons, can counter that possibility. Not real detailed but easily digested.
    • 5/5
      LOVED IT!!!! There's not a better time to read this book than right now! The amount of time that it will take you to read this book is nothing, maybe an hour or two at the most- for people who read slow like I do. That is doable for anyone, regardless of how busy you may be. The information and urgency inside these pages is so important for the current times.
    • 4/5
      Aside from the religion sprinkled a little too strongly throughout (I get that it provides a useful metaphor for people, but also, as an atheist reading this, the terms "God Bless" mean nothing to me at this point. Seriously. Find another way to show your care about people. It matters. Tyranny doesn't care about religious beliefs except as a means to control people. It has no place in a book on resisting Tyranny.), this was a useful book. Probably gonna keep it in the same place I do my G'morning,G'Night book by Lin-Manuel.
    • 5/5
      Short, well written and researched primer on fascism in relation to modern politics (particularly the 2016 US Election) and how easily and quickly it can spread through complacency, power and fear.

      What stands it up above the other articles written on the subject since Trump's victory is that it suggests some methods of resistance in a clearly structured way - everyone should read this.

      There's some definite parallels with the current political situation in the UK - "People who assure you that you can only gain security at the price of liberty usually want to deny you both"
    • 5/5
      Yale history professor Timothy Snyder wrote ON TYRANNY Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century in 2017. Based on well-known historical events, the short, well-written, thought provoking book explains how a country can change from a democracy to a tyrannical state in a very short period of time.
      Many of the democracies created in the first half of the twentieth century have already collapsed. Among the reasons are:
      People and government agencies anticipating what they though the leader wanted even if it hadn’t been ordered. For example, local Austrian Nazis and the French Vichy attacked the Jewish populations, sometimes more extremely than those under Hitler’s command were doing.
      Rival parties and ideas were suppressed and voting restrictions were enacted to create a one-party state.
      Professionals and workers followed the orders of the professional leaders rather than their professional ethics and standards, e.g., doctors performing unnecessary procedures, including murder..
      Police and military forces were intermingled and the leaders formed a personal security force against dissenters.
      Leaders using an isolated incident, such as the burning of the Reichstag, as an excuse to expand power.
      Snyder provided examples of people who stood apart from the sheep to stop the spread. Even though much of Europe was already under Nazi rule, Winston Churchill refused to follow the examples of the governments of the Soviet Union and France who quickly fell into the Nazi camp.
      In order to know what is actually happen, especially in these days with so many sources of information, much of it false, people should Investigate and seek the truth. They should actually differentiate what they want to hear from what is actually being said.
      The only thing the book is missing is a checklist for the readers to note which are happening or have happened in the US since Donald Trump took office.
    • 5/5
      I have a lot to think about now.
    • 4/5
      Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is a valuable primer on encroaching autocracy. The historical antecedents cited by the author provide fair warning for this critical moment in American history as the current administration clearly has begun laying the groundwork for autocratic rule. Democracies can and do fail, and Snyder concisely explains how it happens and what citizens must do to resist the rise of authoritarianism. This is frightening but essential reading for our perilous times.
    • 5/5
      I felt the need to reread this book because I now think my own country stands in murkier territory regarding tyranny than it did in 2017 when this book was written and in 2018 when I first read this book. Some of what it said I did not clearly understand, but yet it gave me chills and a terrified feeling when I considered what this book was telling me about my chidren's and grandchildren's future. I will try to heed the advice of this book (keep informed through print rather than electronic media, maintain a valid passport, limit online sharing, and safeguard your privacy...among other things), but I will also try not to give in to hopelessness and will try to keep a strong sense of resistance to those proactices I see and hear about with which I do not agree.

      This book is quickly becoming dated. It should be read now by others and should be updated by its author.
    • 5/5
      This is a short book that compares what is happening in American politics right now to what happened in fascist regimes in the 20th century. It was written right after the election in 2016. I read it in the week that the Democrats began impeachment procedures against Trump, and it's far more relevant now than it was 3 years ago. It's terrifying, but also enlightening. Everyone should be required to read this book. It shows how Trump is following the fascist playbook, and has clear tips for how to resist him.
    • 5/5
      Book source ~ Library

      I don’t normally read non-fiction, but I found this on someone else’s book list/post/blog (sorry I can’t remember which or who) and felt it extremely relevant in these dangerous times. Because they are dangerous. It’s unreal to me that Hitler isn’t that far back in our history, a mere blip in the entirety of Earth’s history, and yet it seems as if we are making the same exact mistakes that Germany and others did back in the 30s & 40s. Totally unreal. I’m not sure if having the internet and access to social media is good or bad, but I’m leaning towards good so that those fighting for democracy can reach more people. But the vast amount of disinformation out there being shared with and by people who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, not to mention those who do not have the best interests of the many in mind, is needless to say, alarming.

      Our government is corrupt. It’s been corrupt for decades now and the only good thing to come out of Trump’s presidency is that more and more people have finally woken up to the fact we’re getting royally screwed by the people who are supposed to be working for us. US. The citizens of the United States of America. Because, I’m just going to say it, Americans have gotten lazy as fuck. Me included. Combined with loss of funding for essentials such as education we’re also raising Americans who are dumb as fuck. Yes, I said it. Lazy and dumb. Just what our government wants us to be so they can keep lining their and their buddies pockets with more money than they could ever spend in 3 lifetimes.

      I’m going to put this out there, it may sound crazy, but I don’t care. I think Russia wants to be the new Roman Empire, taking over the majority of the world. They seem to be playing the long game and sustaining themselves by eating the elephant one bite at a time. And we’re stupid enough to let it happen. Shame on us. But it hasn’t happened yet and we really need to make sure the lessons from the past follow us into the future. Short memories will get us killed. I recommend this book to everyone.
    • 3/5
      Timothy Snyder's short book is a useful read in that it covers a lot of ground very quickly, but also links to further reading in many places. But if you're looking for an in-depth examination of the state of politics, of corruption, of government control - you might need to look elsewhere. Snyder scratches the surface, but stops there, expecting the reader to continue on by themselves. This book then is like a sign pointing us in the right direction - be good, be patriotic (but understand what that rightly means), and be critical.

    Book preview

    On Tyranny - Timothy Snyder

    Cover for On TyrannyBook Title, On Tyranny, Subtitle, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Author, Timothy Snyder, Imprint, Tim Duggan Books

    Copyright © 2017 by Timothy Snyder

    All rights reserved.

    Published in the United States by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

    timdugganbooks.com

    TIM DUGGAN BOOKS and the Crown colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

    ISBN 9780804190114

    Ebook ISBN 9780804190121

    Book design by Lauren Dong, adapted for ebook

    Cover design by Christopher Brand

    ep_prh_5.6.1_148814534_c0_r3

    In politics, being deceived is no excuse.

    —Leszek Kołakowski

    Contents

    Cover

    Title Page

    Copyright

    Epigraph

    Prologue

    Chapter 1: Do Not Obey in Advance.

    Chapter 2: Defend Institutions.

    Chapter 3: Beware the One-Party State.

    Chapter 4: Take Responsibility for the Face of the World.

    Chapter 5: Remember Professional Ethics.

    Chapter 6: Be Wary of Paramilitaries.

    Chapter 7: Be Reflective If You Must Be Armed.

    Chapter 8: Stand Out.

    Chapter 9: Be Kind to Our Language.

    Chapter 10: Believe in Truth.

    Chapter 11: Investigate.

    Chapter 12: Make Eye Contact and Small Talk.

    Chapter 13: Practice Corporeal Politics.

    Chapter 14: Establish a Private Life.

    Chapter 15: Contribute to Good Causes.

    Chapter 16: Learn from Peers in Other Countries.

    Chapter 17: Listen for Dangerous Words.

    Chapter 18: Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives.

    Chapter 19: Be a Patriot.

    Chapter 20: Be as Courageous as You Can.

    Epilogue

    Also by Timothy Snyder

    About the Author

    _148814534_

    Prologue

    History and Tyranny

    History does not repeat, but it does instruct. As the Founding Fathers debated our Constitution, they took instruction from the history they knew. Concerned that the democratic republic they envisioned would collapse, they contemplated the descent of ancient democracies and republics into oligarchy and empire. As they knew, Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants. In founding a democratic republic upon law and establishing a system of checks and balances, the Founding Fathers sought to avoid the evil that they, like the ancient philosophers, called tyranny. They had in mind the usurpation of power by a single individual or group, or the circumvention of law by rulers for their own benefit. Much of the succeeding political debate in the United States has concerned the problem of tyranny within American society: over slaves and women, for example.

    It is thus a primary American tradition to consider history when our political order seems imperiled. If we worry today that the American experiment is threatened by tyranny, we can follow the example of the Founding Fathers and contemplate the history of other democracies and republics. The good news is that we can draw upon more recent and relevant examples than ancient Greece and Rome. The bad news is that the history of modern democracy is also one of decline and fall. Since the American colonies declared their independence from a British monarchy that the Founders deemed tyrannical, European history has seen three major democratic moments: after the First World War in 1918, after the Second World War in 1945, and after the end of communism in 1989. Many of the democracies founded at these junctures failed, in circumstances that in some important respects resemble our own.

    History can familiarize, and it can warn. In the late nineteenth century, just as in the late twentieth century, the expansion of global trade generated expectations of progress. In the early twentieth century, as in the early twenty-first, these hopes were challenged by new visions of mass politics in which a leader or a party claimed to directly represent the will of the people. European democracies collapsed into right-wing authoritarianism and fascism in the 1920s and ’30s. The communist Soviet Union, established in 1922, extended its model into Europe in the 1940s. The European history of the twentieth century shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands. It would serve us well today to understand why.

    Both fascism and communism were responses to globalization: to the real and perceived inequalities it created, and the apparent helplessness of the democracies in addressing them. Fascists rejected reason in the name of will, denying objective truth in favor of a glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people. They put a face on globalization, arguing that its complex challenges were the result of a conspiracy against the nation. Fascists ruled for a decade or two, leaving behind an intact intellectual legacy that grows more relevant by the day. Communists ruled for longer, for nearly seven

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