Review: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Snyder's slim volume is a Ronseal type book - it does what it says on the cover, no more, no less.  Each lesson is prefixed by a short directive, and an expanded summary of its meaning.  Students of the second World War will find much that is familiar here - but the book also draws upon examples from Soviet Russia.  It would have been great to see a much broader palette of examples from other historical and current regimes.

I was interested to see how lawyers willing became tools of the Nazi state - perhaps in part because of their fascination with the law, even a creeping corrupted version of it.

With its frequent references to "the president", it's clear the book has Trump in its sights and the US public as its audience.

It's possible to pick the occasional fault too. I don't know that I'm quite so enamoured by print journalists as Snyder obviously is.  Nor am I quite so convinced about the email exchanges of politicians being comparable to what happens when models are getting changed or sportspeople showering in locker rooms (ie they should remain private).  Sportspeople and models don't generally hold themselves as guardians of public morals.

But perhaps I'm being a little churlish. In a world, where books frequently spend too long to get to the meat - and that meat is often pretty thinly sliced - a short summary is greatly appreciated.

Verdict: A good field guide for tyranny spotters everywhere.