Are you troubled by the current political sh*t show here in America?

Timothy Snyder seems to think that you should be. In fact, he is so concerned that he wrote a thin guide of sorts. Why does it matter that Mr. Snyder is worried? Aren’t many other people? Well, yes, but Mr. Snyder is a historian who has studied war and specifically dictatorship in the mid-20^th century Europe a good deal, and written books on that, too. To put it in his own words, "I’ve spent the last 25 years writing about…these books about how regimes change and about how political atrocities are committed…this is the first time I’m writing about America. And I feel compelled to do so because I’m afraid things can change here very fast."

And while he wrote his new slim volume, "On Tyranny," for everyone, he also admits to writing it, in part, specifically for the younger generation in America. He cites his main reason for doing so as a “fear [that what] we’ve done in this country is raise a generation of young people under the slogan that history was over, that things are basically going in the right direction and always will,” and that us young people, after realizing that thing are not, in fact, going in the right direction, will be blindsided, in a way, and instead of “realiz[ing] that history is precisely about what you yourself can do”, we will think that everything is terrible and there is nothing we can do. He also cautions that "America's not an exception. The myths that we tell about ourselves are not true. We're not wiser than Germans in the 1930s."

The book itself is a mere 126 pages, and it is a collection of "20 lessons from the twentieth century." It gives advice ranging from “be wary of paramilitaries” to “make eye contact and small talk” to “listening for dangerous words” (which, by the way, includes extremism and terrorism, terms that are common in today’s media parlance), and almost most importantly, “do not obey in advance.” Mr. Snyder gives advice about how you CAN make your difference in the world right now while telling you what to look out for. He should know the red flags, considering his background.

It’s a quick and easy read, and I highly recommend you take the time to read it. It took me perhaps two days, and I have a full-to-bursting schedule. I also recommend that you read or listen to the brief NPR interview with him regarding "On Tyranny." It is highly worth your time.