On Tyranny: The Lessons of the Past and a Guide for The Present
In this talk based on his #1 New York Times bestselling book, TIMOTHY SNYDER offers a guide for resisting what he describes as America's turn toward authoritarianism. He leads audiences through the lessons of the past by examining why other democracies gave way to fascism, Nazism, or communism, and offers a call to arms, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.
Our Malady: Lessons from History and My Hospital Bed
The Holocaust as History and Warning
TIMOTHY SNYDER presents a new explanation of the Holocaust and exposes its causes as risks that we face today. Based on the research that informed his important bestseller Black Earth, Snyder recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus a terrifying warning for the present.
Renowned historian Timothy Snyder is in high demand for his analysis of Russia’s war on Ukraine and the global impacts of authoritarianism
Yale University historian and many-time New York Times bestselling author TIMOTHY SNYDER has been sought-after for his unmatched insights on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as the far-reaching global impacts of the rise of authoritarianism. Hailed by the New York Times as a "public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between the past and present," Snyder is the preeminent voice drawing on the darkest chapters of history to illuminate present-day events and offer guidance for the future. Author of six books on Ukraine, he is releasing an expanded audiobook edition of On Tyranny – updated with twenty new lessons from Russia’s war on Ukraine – all of the proceeds will go to humanitarian aid in Ukraine. His expert analysis has been featured in Foreign Policy, the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Financial Times, and more, and he writes regularly on his Substack ‘Thinking about…’. Snyder appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, as well as The Ezra Klein Show for The New York Times, and on many panels, lending his expertise to vital conversations about today’s top headlines and what they mean for the world.
Watch Timothy Snyder at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University >>
Watch Timothy Snyder on a Yale University panel on the War in Ukraine >>
Professor and Historian of fascism Timothy Snyder's book On Tyranny is #1 on the NYT Bestseller List because by studying the past, Snyder helps us understand the current vulnerabilities of our democracy
Yale University professor and historian of fascism TIMOTHY SNYDER's book has struck a chord. Two years after its publication, his book On Tyranny was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Why? As he explained on his recent interviews with Rachel Maddow and on Amanpour & Company, political order and democracy itself face urgent threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. Snyder presents lessons of the past as a guide to modern resistance of authoritarianism which threatens legitimate elections, peaceful transfer of power, and public trust in the good-will of institutions. The New York Times praised Snyder as a "public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between the past and present." These lessons will always be relevant, because our democracy is always shifting. In 2021, Snyder published an essay in The New York Times explaining how laws restricting the discussion of race in schools can affect the United States' democracy, showing how his discussions are always relevant, no matter the time period.
His newest book Our Malady is a short, urgent examination of healthcare as a human right with lessons derived from Professor Snyder’s recent personal experience being hospitalized which he powerfully chronicled in his new article, What Ails America. The timeliness of this book cannot be overstated. He examines how we as a society allowed a system of commercial medicine to development in misalignment with the belief that healthcare is a human right. Snyder traces the societal forces that led us here and outlines the lessons we must learn to survive and create an America where everyone is truly free.
A masterful presenter, Snyder is sought out by groups around the world to understand the direct line between big ideas of the past and our lives today.
Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He speaks five and reads ten European languages. His eight chief books are Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Thinking the Twentieth Century (with Tony Judt, 2012); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); and The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018). He has also co-edited three further books: The Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America (2001); Stalin and Europe: Terror, War, Domination (2013); and The Balkans as Europe (2018). His essays are collected in Ukrainian History, Russian Politics, European Futures (2014), and The Politics of Life and Death (2015).
His newest book Our Malady is a short, urgent examination of healthcare as a human right which begins from Snyder`s recent and nearly fatal illness. From his hospital bed, he rethinks the connections between the health we lack and the freedom we need. In a time of authoritarianism and pandemic, the timeliness of this book cannot be overstated. Both a cri de coeur and a data-driven argument, it shows the way towards an America that is both healthy and free.
Snyder’s work has appeared in forty languages and has received a number of prizes, including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities, the Literature Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Václav Havel Foundation prize, the Foundation for Polish Science prize in the social sciences, the Leipzig Award for European Understanding, the Dutch Auschwitz Committee award, and the Hannah Arendt Prize in Political Thought. Snyder was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, has received the Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships, and holds state orders from Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland. He has appeared in documentaries, on network television, and in major films. His books have inspired poster campaigns and exhibitions, films, sculpture, a punk rock song, a rap song, a play, and an opera. His words are quoted in political demonstrations around the world, most recently in Hong Kong. He is researching a family history of nationalism and finishing a philosophical book about freedom.
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