By showcasing the stark choices before us-between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood-Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty. By revealing the stark choices before us-between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood-Snyder restores our understanding of.

One could become free simply by contenting oneself with one’s situation. In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy. If being free meant being unprevented from realizing one’s desires, then one could, again paradoxically, reduce one’s unfreedom by coming to desire fewer of the things one is unfree to do. While countries like Poland and Hungary have made hard turns towards authoritarianism, the electoral upsets of 2016 revealed the citizens of the US and UK in revolt against their countries’ longstanding policies and values.īut this threat to the West also presents the opportunity to better understand the pillars of our own political order. In the last six years, it has creeped from east to west as nationalism inflames Europe, abetted by Russian propaganda and cyberwarfare. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future.

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. With relentless detail, Snyder recounts Russias successful efforts to foment unrest in faltering liberal democracies.

The way to unfreedom