The Road to Unfreedom
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  • Published: 5 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473560055
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 10 min
  • Narrator: Timothy Snyder
  • RRP: $22.99

The Road to Unfreedom

Russia, Europe, America

Formats & editions
Paperback
2 Apr 2019
EBook
5 Apr 2018
Audiobook
5 Apr 2018
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A landmark work of contemporary history and a wake-up call that aims to restore our understanding of the basis of our way of life, from the author of international bestseller On Tyranny.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Road to Unfreedom, written and read by Timothy Snyder.

The past is another country, the old saying goes. The same might be said of the future. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia.

Today's Russia is an oligarchy propped up by illusions and repression. But it also represents the fulfilment of tendencies already present in the West. And if Moscow's drive to dissolve Western states and values succeeds, this could become our reality too.

In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West; by supporting the far right in Europe, invading Ukraine in 2014, and waging a cyberwar during the 2016 presidential campaign and the EU referendum. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the creation of Donald Trump, an American failure deployed as a Russian weapon.

But this threat presents an opportunity to better understand the pillars of our freedoms, confront our own complacency and seek renewal. History never ends, and this new challenge forces us to face the choices that will determine the future: equality or oligarchy, individualism or totalitarianism, truth or lies.

The Road to Unfreedom helps us to see our world as if for the first time. It is necessary reading for any citizen of a democracy.

‘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 DEUS
  • Published: 5 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473560055
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 10 min
  • Narrator: Timothy Snyder
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder is Levin Professor of History at Yale University and the author of a number of critically acclaimed books including The Road to Unfreedom and most recently On Tyranny which was an international bestseller.

His previous books include Black Earth, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the annual prize of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee; and Bloodlands, which won the Hannah Arendt Prize, the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award in the Humanities and the literature award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Also by Timothy Snyder

On Tyranny Graphic Edition
Our Malady
On Tyranny
Black Earth
Thinking the Twentieth Century
Bloodlands
The Red Prince
See all

Praise for 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 DEUS

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

This 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

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

One of the best…brisk, conceptually convincing account of democracy’s retreat in the early years of 21st century

Luke Harding, Guardian

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

David Everatt, Conversation