Perhaps you read Snyder’s bracing pamphlet, On Tyranny (or the Facebook post it was based on)—from its title, I had imagined this new, much larger book as an expansion of those ideas, but, while it’s written in the same level-headed-but-urgent tone (which Snyder’s voice for the audiobook perfectly represents), it’s doing something related but different, focusing less on tyranny in the abstract than on the very specific case of Putin’s Russia. And while there are many excellent books on that subject, what’s most impressive, enlightening, and disturbing is the way he systematically traces the intellectual structure of Putin’s regime and his foreign interventions, introducing concepts like “eternity politics” and “implausible deniability” that give some order to the disorder we’re living through.
—Tom Nissley, Phinney Books, Seattle, WA
This title is the Audio Book of the Week at Phinney Books (available through your local indie via Libro.fm). It is also available as a hardcover at Phinney Books and other independent booksellers.