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. 那些想破坏民主的人
系统故意压制对历史的访问. We find ourselves in a “post-truth” era, in which
全球的民主国家都在衰落. 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
研究领域包含多种观点. 学习不是为了寻求对自己所知的证实
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. 你也有机会集中注意力
specifically on these issues in your Freshman Seminars. 以斯奈德的书为起点，
these classes and accompanying programming will explore the ways in which learning about history
能帮助我们塑造现在和未来吗.
We live in an era not only of widespread distrust in and dissatisfaction with government, but also of
日益严重的社会经济不平等. 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. 也许他最出名的作品是《365比分网电竞》:
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
近代史上“史无前例”. 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. 我们不能忽视知识和真理. 相反，我们必须履行我们的职责
as a community of learners to face difficult histories, 参与具有挑战性的想法, and respect the
多元民主中存在的差异.

Dr. Emma Woelk, Associate Professor of German, Director of Honors Program & Global Initiatives 

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