Jan 12

Jan 12 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

About the book

Author: Timothy Snyder
Publisher: Tim Duggan Books

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

If you haven’t read On Tyranny, please do so as soon as possible. This is an extremely short book — it’s 1:47 on audio and pocket-sized in print — that is nothing short of required reading, especially right now.

On Tyranny was published shortly after Donald Trump took office the first time. Snyder is a scholar of fascism and history. This book looks back at the ways we can learn from the rise of fascism and Naziism in the mid-20th century in order to prevent it from happening again today — because make no mistake, it absolutely could. (Check out a much deeper dive into its 20 lessons and some key conversational takeaways in my Substack post.)

What impressed me most about this book, aside from the urgent subject matter, was how powerfully Snyder makes his points in only a few pages per chapter. His word economy is astounding, and the effect is deeply affecting. He is clearly very knowledgable and very smart, and his 20 lessons are clear and compelling and actionable.

I really hope you’ll read it.