On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Yale University professor Timothy Snyder has spent a long time learning the languages, reading the documents, exploring the archives, and listening to witnesses of the totalitarian tyrannies of Europe in the last century --particularly of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. This short book consists of a brief introduction, twenty short chapters, and an epilogue. Each chapter directs an action, such as no. 12, "Make eye contact and small talk" followed by a historical example, or expansion of the point. All the actions can be undertaken or performed in daily life; there is no grand theory here. In place a grand theory, there is a fundamental point: respect and value facts, truth, and accurate usage of our common language. In order to make history, young Americans will have to know some. Will that be the twenty-first lesson on tyranny from the twenty-first century? Read more at The Extensible Librarian: The Blog of the University Librarian.
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