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PRH imprint The Bodley Head is rush-publishing a new book by historian Timothy Snyder, which offers lessons drawn from 20th century history on how the US can defend itself from tyranny.
Snyder's "urgent political intervention", On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, was acquired by publishing director Stuart Williams (UK and Commonwealth rights) just before Christmas, from Tina Bennett at WME.
The book will be out on in the UK on 2nd March (128-page, B-format paperback), in the same week that Crown publishes in the US.
Snyder is professor of History at Yale, and the author of histories Bloodlands and Black Earth (both Vintage). On Tyranny's premise, which originated in a Facebook post by the author, is that "Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to totalitarianism but they have one advantage: that they can learn from Europe’s experience."
Williams called the book "the most urgent and necessary book of the year." He told The Bookseller: "What's really energising and exciting to me is that the book is practical. It tells you what you an do, how you can be a vigilant citizen. Because the author is a world class scholar of 20th century history, it is grounded in what happened, and what characteristics totalitarian regimes had in their infancy, and there are direct parallels [with what's happening today]. We've all read opinion pieces, but this has greater depth because of his expertise.
"On top of that, it is practical, instructive and enabling. Chapter One, for example, 'Do Not Obey in Advance', is about not anticipating the will of leaders and conforming to it."
There are "interesting, disruptive marketing plans that will get the word out," Williams added.