On Freedom

Reviews

“Stimulating . . . With all his deep absorption in Eastern Europe, Snyder has no illusions about the dilemma of freedom in his own country. Apart from his work as a professor, he teaches prisoners, which gives him a keener appreciation of the unique horrors of American mass incarceration.”—The New York Times
 
“[A] timely manifesto for our fearful age . . . Snyder knows how precious and fragile freedom is because he has studied and, in Ukraine, even seen what happens to people when brutes take it away. . . . His knowledge of tyranny is invaluable in analyzing freedom. But Snyder’s book goes well beyond history. . . . [which] makes On Freedom intellectually rich, yet personal.”—Financial Times

“[Snyder’s] deep political and philosophical examination of . . . how to create and sustain freedom provides a hopeful view for the future.”—Los Angeles Times

“The pace is breathtaking, the writing fluid, and the knowledge deep.”—The Spectator

“A rigorous and visionary argument, and one deeply rooted in Snyder’s own biography—he begins with his memories of ringing the family Liberty Bell on his Ohio farm, as a ten-year-old on Independence Day. He has subsequently done nearly all of his thinking about these ideas not on a screen but in interactions with those who feel the presence and absence of freedom most keenly: from Ukrainian pensioners caught up in never-ending conflict to the inmates of a high-security prison, where he teaches a course on liberation. . . . Buy or borrow this book, read it, take it to heart.”—The Guardian

“Ambitious . . . An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Pensive yet urgent, this meditation is itself an exercise of intellectual freedom.”—Booklist

“In these hard times for liberty, On Freedom offers a deep inquiry arising from a diversity of perspectives. . . . We are all fortunate that Timothy Snyder has shown us the way.”—President Volodymyr Zelens’kyi

“Timothy Snyder is one of our most original and perceptive thinkers, on the history of Europe, on American politics, and now, on freedom. Everyone who cares about freedom—what it means and what it takes to preserve it—should read this book.”—Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy

“Insightful and powerful . . . In this magnificent meditation on the nature and meaning of humanity, Timothy Snyder rejects the idea that freedom is merely the absence of restraint.”—Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening

“A must-read. Timothy Snyder is one of the leading minds of our times.”—Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

“What more can any of us want than a reminder that our freedom, in being the most powerful future tense we have, gives more deliberate meaning to our todays.”—Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom

“[A] wonderfully provocative and profoundly persuasive book.”—J.J. Abrams Expand reviews