From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
This short book can be read in an hour, but it provides a great deal of historical insight and advice for how to engage in a post-truth (or as Snyder calls it, "pre-fascist") society. Snyder is a celebrated historian of the mid-20th century, and he uses his encyclopedic knowledge of European fascist and communist regimes to reveal their 21st-century American echoes, and to arm the reader with directives like "do not obey in advance" and "make eye contact" that sound simple but can be remarkably courageous. On Tyranny is both a comforting and a terrifying book: its comfort lies in knowing that resisting tyranny is possible, and its terror lies in knowing that such resistance is now necessary. Recommended By Rhianna W., Powells.com
America in 2017 is a traffic accident I can’t tear my eyes from. Timothy Snyder offers short history lessons on how Americans have survived difficult times before, and suggests that with thoughtfulness and a moral compass we can survive them again. These examples give me a certain amount of hope that we can get through the current sundering of our democracy and social fabric, and that we can arrest the destruction of America’s fundamental freedoms. On Tyranny is a small book that inspires big thoughts. Read it alone, read it at school, but above all: read it with your kids. Recommended By Tracey T., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"We are rapidly ripening for fascism. This American writer leaves us with no illusions about ourselves." — Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
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.
Review
"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. Put a copy in your pocket and one on your bedside table, and it will help you keep going for the next four years or however long it takes." Masha Gessen
Review
"Easily the most compelling volume among the early resistance literature.... A slim book that fits alongside your pocket Constitution and feels only slightly less vital.... Clarifying and unnerving.... A memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now." Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post
About the Author
Timothy Snyder is the Housum Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Snyder is a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a permanent fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.