On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Lecture by Timothy Snyder, the Housum Professor of History at Yale University and author of a new book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, an essential guide to survival and resistance for our time (Tim Duggan Books; February 28, 2017).

Snyder offers today’s reader a guide to identifying and understanding the frightening parallels that exist between our current reality and the reality faced by Europeans of the twentieth century. But Snyder goes further, using history to show us how to effectively resist and bring about change. On Tyranny offers invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come through a series of twenty lessons, such as Do not obey in advance, Defend institutions and Beware the one-party state, Be calm when the unthinkable arrives, Be a patriot and Be as courageous as you can.

“Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so.”

— Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Timothy Snyder is the author of several award-winning books including Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.

The book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century will be available to purchase.

Free and open to the public. Seats are limited; RSVP at eventbrite.