On Freedom
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:19th Sep '24
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 19th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A brilliant exploration of freedom – what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival – by the acclaimed, bestselling author of On Tyranny.
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 toward counsel and prediction, working against authoritarians. His book On Tyranny has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom.
Freedom is the great American commitment, but as Snyder argues, we have lost sight of what it means – and this is leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state power: We think we're free if we can do and say as we please, and protect ourselves from government overreach. But true freedom isn’t so much freedom from, as freedom to – the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.
Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes – the habits of mind – that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. We come to appreciate the importance of traditions but also the role of institutions. Intimate yet ambitious, this book helps forge a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity, and grace.
On Freedom helps us see exactly what we’re fighting for. It is a thrilling intellectual journey and a tour de force of political philosophy.
We hear of freedom, but do we grasp it? In these hard times for liberty, On Freedom offers a deep inquiry arising from a diversity of perspectives. It makes the case that freedom, once explored and understood, is the way forward to good government. We are all fortunate that Professor 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
There's nothing else like On Freedom. This time the acclaimed historian draws not just from global history but his own. The result is a wonderfully provocative and profoundly persuasive book. Snyder leads us away from our misconception that freedom is just the removal of what stands in our way and toward a project of liberty that, through active engagement and commitment to the common good, we can achieve together -- J. J. Abrams
A must-read. Timothy Snyder is one of the leading minds of our times. This new book draws from his work as an historian of central Europe, his travelling and moving encounters in Ukraine at war, and his thinking on how democracy, pluralism and wealth inequality will look like in 2076 United States and the world at large -- Thomas Piketty
Much like life itself, freedom needs to defined and redefined ... On Freedom offers fresh insight into essential aspects of human existence - the values and obligations inherent in every individual's life -- Ai Weiwei
Years ago, inside a prison in Port-o-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a man asked if I’d ever felt free while incarcerated. Snyder’s On Freedom reminds me that sometimes, in those cells, I was free as I'll ever be, nurturing imaginative tomorrows, knowing the art of dreaming made those dreams more real than the handcuffs that then bound my wrists. 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
Fascinating. Part deeply personal memoir, part political manifesto, part philosophical poem, On Freedom captures the voice of one of today's most important Western public intellectuals -- Ivan Krastev
PRAISE FOR TIMOTHY SNYDER
A scholar of great distinction and authority
A Yale university historian whose work deserves to be read and reread * Economist *
A hugely important historian * Evening Standard *
[A] remarkable and original historian -- Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief -- Misha Gessen
Talented and innovative -- Niall Ferguson
ISBN: 9781847928054
Dimensions: 240mm x 156mm x 40mm
Weight: 750g
400 pages