A master of analysis using multiple sources, Snyder draws on Russian, German, and other European languages as well as a wide spectrum of books and periodicals in English to make the case. His synthesis describes and documents how Putin’s agents worked with Trump’s entourage to steal the election for Trump ... Snyder calls for a politics of responsibility and virtue rather than hubristic trust that America is a predestined model of progress. His book, however, underscores the difficulty in opposing the oligarchical clans who have shaped recent politics—the Mercers (Breitbart News and Steve Bannon), Trump-Kushner, and the Koch brothers (unlimited campaign contributions) ... Snyder’s book is quite readable—its text backed by more than 50 pages of lengthy endnotes, one or two notes in multiple languages for nearly every page of text.

The road to unfreedom, as Snyder sees it, is one that runs right over the Enlightenment faith in reason and the reasonableness of others — the very underpinning, that is, of our institutions and values. Recent examples, found around the world, demonstrate both how important conventions and mutual respect are as a way of maintaining order and civility — and how easily and carelessly they can be smashed ... Snyder makes a valuable distinction between the narratives of inevitability and those of eternity. The former are like Marxism or faith in the triumph of the free market: They say that history is moving inexorably toward a clear end. The latter do not see progress but an endless cycle of humiliation, death and rebirth that repeats itself ... Liberal democracy is being undermined from within, but not only from within. In addition to the general malaise Snyder identifies, The Road to Unfreedom also points to human agency — in particular that of Vladimir Putin ... So what can the concerned citizen do about the decay in our public life? We must, Snyder says, keep digging for the facts and exposing falsehoods.

Snyder structures this wildly erratic book around a contrast between what he calls the 'politics of inevitability' (represented by neoliberal optimists in the United States and the European Union who allegedly find it impossible to imagine alternatives to what already exists) and the 'politics of eternity' practiced by certain authoritarians ... Snyder comes equipped with just the tools — an impressive knowledge of languages and a deep background in European history — that might help us make sense of his story. His description of the pro-Europe, pro-democratic Maidan Revolution in Kiev in 2014, which he witnessed first hand, is quite good. He also traces useful continuities between Kremlin disinformation campaigns and Trump’s shameless mendaciousness ... Other sections are less successful. Snyder attributes some of Putin’s most cynical acts to the Russian fascist theoretician Ivan Ilyin. I’m not quite convinced, though, that the Russian president really spends his spare time perusing philosophy — and he certainly didn’t need to read a book to come up with a plan for invading Ukraine ... I wish that he’d done a far more straightforward job of making the case.

Snyder is very astute at joining the dots in how Russian propagandists, human or digital, sought to spread fake news to undermine faith in the democratic process, at the same time giving overt support to European separatists and Russia TV regulars such as Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage ... One unavoidable conclusion of this depressing tale lies in the acknowledgment that Putin’s strategy has been so successful in shaking faith in the sanctity of fact and expert knowledge. A measure of that assault comes when you examine your reaction to this meticulously researched and footnoted book as you read it. Timothy Snyder is professor of history at Yale. His book Bloodlands, about the fallout of second world war atrocities on the eastern front, won the prestigious Hannah Arendt prize and was described by the late, great Tony Judt as 'the most important book to appear on this subject in decades'. And yet as he unfolds this contemporary sequel, you might well hear, as I did from time to time, those sneery voices now lodged in your head that whisper of 'liberal elitism' and 'fake news' and 'MSM' and 'tempting conspiracies', and which refuse ever, quite, to be quieted. How did we get here? Snyder has a good idea.

Snyder’s latest book, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, marks the next phase in his transformation from academic historian to political commentator; it is also the apotheosis of a certain paranoid style that has emerged among liberals in Trump’s wake ... But Snyder’s picture of Putin’s campaign to destroy America is unconvincing. Rather than building an argument based on evidence, he often cherry-picks news items to make a tendentious case, relying heavily on the kinds of leading phrases endemic to conspiratorial thinking ... Snyder is unwilling to make the slightest effort to imagine that Russia might have any strategic concerns that go beyond its plot against freedom ... The Road to Unfreedom offers a bleak vision of politics for future activists: one in which all change comes from above, and ordinary people cannot be trusted

Snyder...seems to equate hostility to democracy with fascism. He is...vague and confused about its history ... the Yale professor offers an overacademic [definition of fascism], calling as witnesses a procession of obscure Russian thinkers, above all Ivan Ilyin, whom he regards as fascist ... but ultra-nationalism is not the same as fascism, for all the things they have in common ... The effectiveness of Snyder’s thoughts on the 'road to unfreedom' isn’t helped by the strangely declamatory, often obscure style in which they are expressed. One dubious generalization follows another, as the author never troubles to support any of them with serious evidence ... Obsessed with the theory of Russian manipulation behind all the political surprises of recent history, from the Brexit vote to the election of Trump, he has little to say about the driving forces behind them, forces that are vital to understand if democracy is to be saved. And by packaging all of this in the endlessly repeated concepts of 'the politics of eternity' and 'the politics of inevitability,' he virtually guarantees that he will lose the attention of his readers.

This instance of 'alternative facts' will resonate with many Trump opponents, as will Snyder’s dissection of the leadership style of oligarchs, both Russian and American. His work achieves its stated goal of conveying the relationship among 'interconnected events in our own contemporary world history' and will be a must-read for those concerned about democracy’s safety in the 21st century.

The author expertly details Russian involvement in the 2016 election by Paul Manafort, who 'had experience getting Russia’s preferred candidates elected president'; Trump’s foreign policy adviser, pro-Putin Carter Page, who became a lobbyist for Russian gas companies; and Michael Flynn. Russian use of Twitter, Facebook, and other internet sources 'exploited American gullibility' and cynicism. Freedom, Snyder writes, 'depends upon citizens who are able to make a distinction between what is true and what they want to hear.' A highly distressing, urgent alarm to awaken Americans to the peril of authoritarianism.