Book Review: On Tyranny

I recently listened (via Audibla) to Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century . I wasn’t sure what I’d make of it but I’d heard it was interesting, and I noticed that on a show led by Rachel Maddow.

Author

Timothy Snyder is a well-known author, historian and intellectual. He’s an expert on eastern Europe and on the Second World War.

On Tyranny

I decided to go through this book for two reasons. I was fascinated by his thoughts on tyranny, and I liked the fact that it was a short book. I’m also a fan of books that are narrated by their authors, and Snyder is the narrator for this book.

The book shows how nations descend into tyranny. Snyder is clearly referring to the USA but the examples he provides are mostly from eastern Europe. I found that part of it quite powerful, and there was interesting history from places like Czechoslovakia that I was quite unaware of. I thought I knew about what had happened in the area but this provided detail well beyond what I’d previously known.

The book is structured as a set of lessons. Curiously, the numbering of these tended to confuse me a little when listening to it, as they didn’t line up with the chapter numbers. I suppose that does make sense but when the narrator says chapter 17 and then announces lesson 15, it did feel a bit odd. As I mentioned, it does make sense as the lessons are just the middle part of the book.

You could clearly see how Snyder was concerned about the slide of the USA into a tyrannical country. He didn’t keep talking about the USA but it was clear what he was referring to, in modern society.

The book was written in 2017 and the references to the USA are really about Trump’s first term in office. Given how much more dramatic the slide has been in the second term, I’d love to hear his thoughts right now.

The New York Times referred to the book as a call to arms and a guide to resistance.

The aim was to provide ideas on how freedoms can be preserved in uncertain times.

Summary

I already had strong opinions on these areas but this book made me think about them much more deeply. My only criticism is that it’s a bit short, even though that’s one of the things that drew me to it. For example, I think lesson 20 was a single sentence. But, regardless, fascinating opinions that I’d love to see updated, given the outcomes of the last year or two.

8 out of 10

2026-09-01