The Road to Unfreedom

A brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world – YUVAL NOAH HARARI, author of SAPIENS and HOMO DEUSThis story of how Russia dismantled democracy, and the man who set its template for fake news, is chilling and persuasive … unignorable… a disturbing and persuasive insight… Snyder’s forensic examination of, for example the news cycle that followed the shooting down of flight MH17 makes essential reading … Meticulously researched and footnoted. – Tim Adams * Observer *One of the best…brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy’s retreat in the early years of 21st century – Luke Harding * Guardian *Snyder’s central thesis is a strong one… Vividly and insightfully told. – Edward Lucas * The Times *A rollercoaster world calls for a news editor’s skills in processing facts and a philosopher’s ability to dissect ideologies. He has both. * The Economist *The Road to Unfreedom is a sprawling epic that veers from Dark Ages Kiev to modern day Washington and back again. – Oliver Bullough * Prospect *Snyder’s informative timeline of events on the ground in Ukraine is vivid, and offers a much greater understanding of how this conflict emerged than we got in most English-language news coverage – Katrina Gulliver * Spectator *Timothy Snyder… offers unexpected insights into the seemingly familiar events of the past decade – Anne Applebaum * BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year *Timothy Snyder is one of the world’s top historians… [The Road to Unfreedom is a] bracing analysis – William Leith * Evening Standard *If there’s one book to help explain the bloody mess we find ourselves in…this is it… [Snyder] is a refreshing voice… [and] every chapter is rich with apercu… Every sentence smacks of careful thought, engaged concern, and urgency * Conversation *

Timothy Snyder has been called ‘the leading interpreter of our dark times’. As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge towards counsel and prediction, working against authoritarians and populists. After a quarter century at Yale, he now teaches history at the Munk School in the University of Toronto and his books, which have been published in over forty languages, include Bloodlands, Black Earth, On Tyranny, Road to Unfreedom, Our Malady and On Freedom. His work has inspired poster campaigns and exhibitions, sculptures, a punk rock song, a rap song, a play and an opera, and he has appeared in over fifty films and documentaries.