Historian Timothy Snyder’s #1 New York Times bestseller On Tyranny is also available as an expanded edition that provides the historical background and explains the significance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and of Ukrainian resistance. This illuminating listen is available exclusively as an audiobook read by the author.
The expanded audiobook edition combines the original essays from On Tyranny with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war. A historian of eastern Europe, Snyder explains the connections between events in Russia and Ukraine and the threats to democracy here in the United States. With forays into distant and more recent history, he clarifies both the causes and the stakes of the present war. Speaking only from notes, Snyder guides the reader into the larger moral universe of On Tyranny.
In On Tyranny, Snyder relied upon witnesses of fascism and Stalinism, but also upon the dissidents of our own century. Its lessons have proven to be universal, with the book itself translated into dozens of languages. As the conflict over democracy reaches the sharpest possible pitch in Ukraine, Snyder connects the horrors we are seeing with the future we must rescue. He crystallizes a quarter century of engagement with the country into twenty accessible talks that can guide our understanding of the war – and our reaction.
Snyder, the author of six books on Ukraine’s history and politics, including The Road to Unfreedom and Bloodlands, says, “Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I thought it was important to find a way to say the things that I thought needed to be said about Ukraine, and I’ve decided to connect it to On Tyranny. I’m not reading from a script. I have twenty ideas – twenty further lessons. Some connections between what we can learn about Ukraine in the past, and how we navigate Ukraine and Europe and North America and democracy in general in the present.”
“We recognize the immediate need for Timothy Snyder’s expertise as we seek to understand each day’s news from Ukraine,” says Amanda D’Acierno, President and Publisher of Penguin Random House Audio. “To help bring that context and knowledge to listeners, we’ve worked alongside him to bring this new material from idea to audiobook in just a few short weeks.”
Listen to a clip of On Tyranny: Expanded Audio Edition
Snyder will donate his net proceeds from On Tyranny Expanded Audiobook Edition to benefit humanitarian causes in Ukraine.