On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is a 2017 book by Timothy Snyder, a historian of 20th-century Europe. The book was published by Tim Duggan Books in hardcover and by Penguin Random House in paperback. [1] A graphic version, illustrated by Nora Krug, was released October 5, 2021. [2] The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for paperback nonfiction in 2017 [3] and remained on bestseller lists as late as 2021. [4] [5]
On Tyranny focuses on the concept of tyranny in the context of the modern United States politics, analyzing what Snyder calls "America's turn towards authoritarianism". [6] Explaining that "(h)istory does not repeat, but it does instruct," [7] he analyzes recent European history to identify conditions that can enable established democracies to transform into dictatorships. [8] [9] The short (126 pages) book is presented as a series of twenty instructions on how to combat the rise of tyranny, such as "Defend institutions", "Remember professional ethics", and "Believe in truth". [10]
Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post describes the book as "clarifying and unnerving", "a memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now." [11] Daniel W. Drezner, writing for The New York Times, says, "For such a small book, Snyder invests On Tyranny with considerable heft," but he also describes it as "overwrought" and tending toward hyperbole. [12]
Tim Adams of The Guardian describes the work as "a 'how to' guide for resisting tyranny", concluding "You will read no more relevant field guide to that wisdom than this book." [13] Richard Evans, also in The Guardian, writes that "Snyder provokes us to think again about major issues of our time, as well as significant elements of the past, but he seems to have rushed it out rather too quickly." [14]
In his Substack newsletter, Snyder encourages people to start organizing now (2024) in order to win both local and national elections. [15] He notes that On Tyranny was written in a defensive mode and that if its lessons are learned and implemented now things could get much better in 2025 for those who want to maintain democracy and the rule of law in the United States. [15] Snyder has noted that while Trump did not succeed in overturning the 2020 election, it was practice for a successful coup and his supporters will be better prepared for 2024. [16] He also notes that in 2020 important individuals and institutions were aware Trump might not want to peacefully transfer power if he lost the elections and that they prepared to make sure lawful transfer did occur. [16]
Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017 Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
Mark Reed Levin is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. Nicknamed The Great One, he is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a New York Times best-selling author of seven books and contributes commentary to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review and is known for his incendiary commentary.
Timothy David Snyder is an American historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Philip King Howard is an American lawyer and writer. He has written on the effects of modern law and bureaucracy on human behavior and the workings of society. He started The Common Good, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which advocates simplifying government.
Seth Abramson is an American professor, attorney, author, political columnist, and poet. He is the editor of the Best American Experimental Writing series and wrote a bestselling trilogy of nonfiction works detailing the foreign policy agenda and political scandals of former president Donald Trump.
Daniel W. Drezner is an American political scientist. He is known for his scholarship and commentary on International Relations and International Political Economy.
Jonathan D. Karl is an American political journalist and author. Throughout his career, Karl has covered the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the U.S. State Department, and has reported from more than 30 countries, covering U.S. politics, foreign policy, and the military.
Heather Cox Richardson is an American academic historian, author, and educator. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
This bibliography of Donald Trump is a list of written and published works, by and about Donald Trump. Due to the sheer volume of books about Trump, the titles listed here are limited to non-fiction books about Trump or his presidency, published by notable authors and scholars. Tertiary sources, satire, and self-published books are excluded.
Think Big and Kick Ass: In Business and in Life is a non-fiction book by Donald Trump, then head of The Trump Organization and later President of the United States, and Bill Zanker, The Learning Annex entrepreneur, first published in hardcover in 2007 by HarperCollins. Another edition was subsequently published in paperback in 2008 under the title Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. Trump and Zanker had prior business ventures together before writing the book; Zanker's company helped gain Trump speaking engagements around the world with large audiences.
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump is a 2017 book edited by Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, containing essays from 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals describing the "clear and present danger" that US President Donald Trump's mental health poses to the "nation and individual well being". A second edition updated and expanded the book with additional essays. Lee maintains that the book remains strictly a public service, and all royalties were donated to the public good to remove any conflict of interest.
Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again is a non-fiction book by Donald Trump. It was published in hardcover format by Regnery Publishing in 2011, and reissued under the title Time to Get Tough: Make America Great Again! in 2015 to match Trump's 2016 election campaign slogan. Trump had previously published The America We Deserve (2000) as preparation for his attempt to run in the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign with a populist platform. Time to Get Tough in contrast served as his prelude to the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, with a conservative platform.
What Happened is a 2017 memoir by Hillary Clinton about her experiences as the Democratic Party's nominee and general election candidate for president of the United States in the 2016 election. Published on September 1, 2017, it is her seventh book with her publisher, Simon & Schuster.
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is a 2017 book written by historian Mark Bray and published by Melville House Publishing, which explores the history of anti-fascist movements since the 1920s and 1930s and their contemporary resurgence.
How Democracies Die is a 2018 comparative politics book by Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt about democratic backsliding and how elected leaders can gradually subvert the democratic process to increase their power. The book also offers stark warnings about the impact of the Republican Party and Donald Trump's presidency on U.S. democracy.
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America is a 2018 book by Timothy Snyder. In it, Snyder explores Russian attempts to influence Western democracies and the influence of philosopher Ivan Ilyin on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation in general.
Thinking the Twentieth Century is a 2012 book by historians Timothy Snyder and Tony Judt. The book is based primarily on material by Judt, edited by Snyder. It presents Judt's view on the history of the 20th century.
Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco.
Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could is a memoir written by Congressman Adam Schiff and published in 2021 by Random House. The book mainly recounts the effects of the Trump presidency. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending October 16, 2021.
Democratic backsliding in the United States has been identified as a trend at the state and national levels in various indices and analyses. Democratic backsliding is "a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes the exercise of political power more arbitrary and repressive and that restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection".