“The good news is that ‘On Tyranny’ is a practical guide for how to defend a republic, how to defend individual freedoms, so if a lot of people are reading it, that’s good news.” “The bad news is that our republic is in a lot of trouble,” he explained.
The good news is that ‘On Tyranny’ is a practical guide for how to defend a republic. The bad news is that our republic is in a lot of trouble. Snyder described his books receiving such a coveted distinction as “good news inside of bad news.” In each, Snyder claims with urgency that American democracy is under threat. Both volumes, published by Tim Duggan Books, examine the rise of authoritarianism. Snyder’s 2017 book “On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century” holds the number-one spot for paperback nonfiction, while his 2018 “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, and America” is ranked 10th on the list of the 15 bestsellers in that category. Levin Professor of History, has not one but two books on the weekly New York Times bestseller list - one of them ranked at the top in the paperback nonfiction category. But every now and again, when there’s especially good news, it’s hard not to boast just a little.Īnd so we report that Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. As a general rule, Yale puts little stock in external rankings.