On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, the author uses his great knowledge of history to warn the American people in the aftermath of the 2016 election, in which a new American president came into the limelight. His first sentence in the prologue says exactly the essence of how the book should be read: “History does not repeat itself, but it does contain lessons.” Some learn from this, others repeat a number of mistakes, resulting in negative outcomes.
The 20 lessons are:
- Don’t obey in advance
- Defend an institution
- Prevent the one-party state
- Take responsibility for the face of the world
- Don’t Forget Your Professional Ethics
- Watch out for paramilitaries
- Think carefully if you have to be armed
- Resist
- Cherish our language
- Faith in the Truth
- Do your research
- Make eye contact and talk to each other
- Be physically politically active
- Take care of a private life
- Give to charity
- Learn from others in other countries
- Recognize Dangerous Words
- Stay calm when the unthinkable happens
- Be a patriot
- Be as brave as you can
Throughout the book, the author clearly hints that he does not like the current president of the USA.
A principle of risk analysis that applies here is the review of the past. For risk analyses in general, this can be important to estimate severity and frequency, but also to take note of the measures that were taken at the time, and whether they were effective and efficient. (That’s why I also advocate not leaving risk management to one person, but to involve a polyvalent team with the right spirit. – editor’s note)
The author elaborates on these 20 lessons on the basis of concrete stories, which most of us are familiar with. For example, Nazism is discussed several times, as well as fascism.
When these examples are held against the light of contemporary events, the relevance of various dangers becomes abundantly clear by simple analogy.
However, we have a great advantage: as time goes on, we have more and more history from which we can learn.
Title: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Author: Timothy Snyder, ISBN: 978-0804190114