On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

NEW YORK TIMES #1 BESTSELLER
THE BOOK TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHY DEMOCRACY IS FAILING IN 2025

Praise for the Book

‘The most coherent manifesto on confronting Trump’ – New Statesman

'These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten.' – Observer

‘Clarifying and unnerving… a memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now.’ – Washington Post

'Please read this book. So smart, so timely.' – George Saunders

A Timely Lesson from History

In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism, and communism. These were movements where a leader or a party:

• Claimed to give voice to the people
• Promised protection from global existential threats
• Rejected reason in favor of myth

European history demonstrates that:

• Societies can break.
• Democracies can fall.
• Ethics can collapse.
• Ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances.

Why This Book Matters Today

Today, we are no wiser than the Europeans who witnessed democracy yielding to totalitarianism in the twentieth century. However, when the political order seems imperiled, our advantage lies in learning from their experiences to resist the advance of tyranny.