2024–2025 Common Read: On Tyranny

 

“Post-truth is pre-fascism.” – Timothy Snyder

The search for truth is not only an academic exercise, but a foundation of democracy. Autocrats rely
on the spread of misinformation to gain and hold power. Those who wish to undermine democratic
systems deliberately suppress access to history. We find ourselves in a “post-truth” era, in which
democracies across the globe are in decline. As a university community, we must take responsibility
for the role that the exchange of facts and ideas plays in the pursuit of a more equal and just society.
As a starting point, we invite you to read Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century in preparation for our Common Theme, Defending Democracy, and related
conversations in the fall.

Every discipline on campus plays a unique role in shaping our understanding of the world and each
field of study contains a diversity of viewpoints. To study is not to seek confirmation of what you
already know, but to be open to answers to questions you don’t yet know how to ask. This is how
we develop as thinkers, but also how we maintain a free and democratic society. We hope you’ll
keep this in mind as you pursue your major and minor fields. You’ll also have the chance to focus
specifically on these issues in your Freshman Seminars. Using Snyder’s book as a starting point,
these classes and accompanying programming will explore the ways in which learning about history
can help us shape our present and future.
We live in an era not only of widespread distrust in and dissatisfaction with government, but also of
growing socioeconomic inequalities. We know from the violent history of the previous century that
this is precisely the environment in which antidemocratic parties thrive and seize power. It is this
history from which Snyder draws his lessons for our current age, providing the reader with concrete
steps we can take to help uphold democratic values. Perhaps best known for his work Bloodlands:
Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Timothy Snyder has spent a career studying the murderous regimes
of the last century not simply to catalogue horrors, but to understand how tyranny functions and
how it can be stopped.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we all experienced the anxiety and trauma of an era
“unprecedented” in recent history. The threat we face now does not induce fear because we cannot
know what is at stake; it is terrifying precisely because we know exactly what can happen. We have
clear records of what follows when exclusionist, antidemocratic ideologies take hold, if only we
choose to look. We must not look away from knowledge and truth. Instead, we must fulfill our duty
as a community of learners to face difficult histories, engage with challenging ideas, and respect the
differences that exist in a pluralist democracy.

- Emma Woelk, Associate Professor of German, Director of Honors Program and Global Initiatives

On Tyranny - Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder