Last year's Free Comic Book Day provided me with a few pages from the book you see above. I told myself I would get the full book when it was available and promptly forgot about it. Not too long ago I was at Anderson's in Naperville, and lo! and behold! I stumbled upon a copy of it, remembered my promise to myself and bought this.
It was absolutely worth it. A lot of this stuff I knew already. Some of it I suspected. And yes, I even learned a few things. Tyranny is a subject that is never too far from my mind, especially these days when America is so very close to being overthrown by scumbags of the lowest order. This book should be required reading for every single US citizen. Nora Krug even makes it look pretty with her illustrations on the inside. (It was originally a book written by Timothy Snyder, but this is what they called a "graphic edition.")
(Incidentally, and very uncomfortably, it's also a how-to book on becoming a tyrant if one wishes to take it that way, and I hope no one does.)
It's full of history lessons about how tyrants came to power and how the people, through ignorance or just plain not giving a shit, helped them achieve said power. The language is easy and understandable. It's a fast read. It's just a very good book to have around.
There is one lesson that I really haven't lived my life by. Maybe I should have, but it's too late now. Snyder advises citizens to not put so much information about themselves out there, even if it seems innocuous on such platforms as social media. He means that if you are in opposition to a potential tyrant, then that tyrant could find that information and use it to take you out of the picture. But the reason I live my life so openly, baring each part of my life, especially the ugly parts, is because being that way should make me immune to blackmail. Like when someone came into possession of Penn Jillette's old computer and found a lot of sexual images of him on the hard drive. The guy tried to blackmail Penn, who merely shrugged and said, "I don't care who sees these." Because pretty much everyone knows about what he's into.
So yeah. You should get this book, especially if you're young. Because, as Snyder says, "If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity and inevitability will destroy it. And to make history, young Americans will have to know some."
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