Timothy Snyder: Can History Save Us From Ourselves?

Reflections on the decline of liberal democracy by Yale professor Timothy Snyder. Snyder gives us 20 Lessons from the 20th Century on How to Survive in Trump’s America.
Full programme, including interview at:
vimeo.com/debalie/timothysnyder
A week after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States, American author and professor Timothy Snyder, one of the greatest historians of our time, will shed light on this new era. What can we expect from the Trump-era and do we want to learn from our past? What will happen to Europe in 2017 after the Pax Americana and the Russian-supported advance of the New Right in the US?
“We seem to be poised between two moments: one of optimism about globalization and its economic and political benefits, and one of pessimism, populism, and, at the extreme, opposition to the liberal democratic consensus. Must we slip from one to the other?” - Timothy Snyder
After a survey of the history of horrors and achievements of the West in the twentieth century, professor Snyder will offer a few lessons from its darkest moments, which might still be applicable today. To what extend will populism pose a threat to the liberal democratic system? And will Russian interference in Western media influence Western values? What can we learn from history? During this program, Snyder will reflect on these and other questions.
“The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.” - Timothy Snyder in On Tyranny
About the author
Timothy D. Snyder is the Housum Professor of History at Yale University and a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is the author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, which received the literature award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Hannah Arendt Prize, and the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding. He also wrote Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Snyder is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement and a former contributing editor at The New Republic. He is a permanent fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences, serves as the faculty advisor for the Fortunoff Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, and sits on the advisory council of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research.
Moderator: Caspar van Gemund
Full programme, including interview at:
vimeo.com/debalie/timothysnyder
NEDERLANDS:
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[@normbabbitt4325]

I agree that Timothy Snyder is one of the most important and insightful thinkers and speakers of what has and is going on in the world today, and how we can best meet our present political and social challenges. He has really transformed my previous uninformed views. Because of him, I've been challenged to look more deeply into history and current events.

[@XMrSurrealisticX]

Compelling lecture from one of the most important thinkers of our time!

[@Hackemesser]

Just that he got wrong that Russia invaded Ukraine. Bad mistake.

[@Diggnuts]

How is that wrong? The annexation of the Crimea peninsula is pure and simply an military invasion and occupation of a neighbor. It is not dissimilar to the German annexation of the Sudetenland.

[@mahanmark0]

I agree, how can he simply ignore the concerted effort of the USA to overthrow the legitimate Prime Minister of the Ukraine after spending millions of dollars in a fake uprising for months and months that completely destabilized the entire zone? Let's also not forget the US attempt at a coup in Georgia several years ago. The USA has an agenda that wanted to put NATO on Russia's front doorstep. What was Putin supposed to do, sit back and let them do it? If anything the USA's strategy backfired in colossal fashion as Putin is much stronger now than when this mess began. But look at the USA's strategy worldwide in recent years, where has it not backfired?

[@listener523]

Mark Mahan Well I mean you could just sell petroleum to Europe, buy grain from Ukraine, and have a peaceful normal existence. It's a lot more sensible than constantly invading yoyr neighbors.

[@modernmythproductions9976]

Oh, bleh. Fake news, right?

[@dewinthemorning]

I have read Tymothy Snyder's book "The Black Earth". He presents a very good philosophy of history!

[@2bsirius]

Great to see that you are still around! I have just ordered Timothy Snyder's latest book _On Tyranny_ but I'll also be reading _The Black Earth_ so thanks for reminding me to add it to my TBR list.

[@modernmythproductions9976]

Philosophy of history is about the production of history, in general. It doesn't have anything to do with, say, the history of Russia. One such philosophy is that the facts of history may not be entirely known, but they are "knowable." In other words, we are capable of getting to the objective reality of the past even if everything about the past is not entirely known. The British historian, Richard J. Evans, is of this variety. Check his book, "In Defence of History." (Notice the British spelling!) Me, I'm not so sure. I'm with the Haitian anthropologist, Michel-Rolph Trouillout. The production of history always involves the silencing of one narrative and its replacement by another. Ergo, his famous book: "Silencing the Past." Those are two good places to start. As Ralph Steadman would say: "Good luck."

[@Anna-tj7mp]

I am reading it. Essential reading for our time. He is a philosopher, an historian, a humane, intelligent moral voice. His work is helping me see more clearly, think about what I can change as I was sinking into catastrophism.

[@yukibird0]

lol, that twin analog was funny as hell Great speach as usual by Tim

[@frankgorlich9152]

It's not "Reflections on the decline of liberal democracy", its Reflections on its possible decline and our choices to maybe avoid it!

[@pameladewinter8724]

A brilliant man, wonderful talk that forces us to take an intellectual approach to today's events. Appreciate the lack of exaggeration that endangers plain thinking about where we are on the 'bad' scale in this country.

[@darleneduck9818]

I think you're wonderful I plan to write you and I've read your book Black Earth I have two more of your books from the library to read you're fantastic your intelligence amazes me thank you so much for so much insight Darlene duck

[@frankgorlich9152]

It's not "Reflections on the decline of liberal democracy", it's Reflections on its possibe decline an on our choices to maybe prevent it!

[@friscartatik3372]

Good morning sir You Are great ?

[@deroconnor4621]

History may not have ended, however our ability to adjust has. We now have near zero social mobility and a dangerously isolated social elite.

[@MarcosElMalo2]

I don’t think your claims are based on fact. Perhaps you are merely being hyperbolic because, for example, you are personally feeling less social mobility or seeing less social mobility in your immediate social group. (Perhaps you are seeing and experiencing downward social mobility, as well.) You are also claiming that our ability to adjust has ended. Is this really a claim you want to make? Snyder is arguing that falling prey to either cyclical narratives (fascism) or inevitable ahistorical narratives (Hegel-Marx & positivism) limits our choices, but he is not arguing we have lost the ability. We just aren’t using that ability. Are you merely engaging in hyperbole? Or are you arguing from a limited set of facts? I can meet you halfway with regard to social mobility and bolster it by pointing out the huge wealth gap we have witnessed globally. But I must still point out that the net zero or negative social mobility you experience locally has been more than offset by global social mobility. Billions have been pulled out of poverty because of globalization.

[@sleeprunning]

Don't forget his book, "Bloodlands". awful, gut wrenching new scholarship and facts. Also, "The Taste of War" by other author

[@kcconnor5085]

THE POLITICS OF ETERNITY? COOL........

[@MarcosElMalo2]

The cyclical narrative of return to a perfection that never existed historically.

[@tisiaan]

Hé sais we can't become something that never was discribed this or that way in historie...

[@MarcosElMalo2]

He says you can’t RETURN to something that never was.

[@pauldalnoky6055]

He's a bright guy but clearly not immune from TDS.

[@margalacabe6338]

it sounds like Ivan Ilyn was a gnostic

[@kcconnor5085]

yes. the demi gods et al

[@MarcosElMalo2]

Yeah, I can see how you could cast Ilyin as a Gnostic. You’re not wrong. You might more generally call him a mystic, though, outlining a mystic narrative of the sort that underlies fascism.

[@jennifercuddy5663]

I’m not going to defend institutions when they have become corrupted. Maybe he would think differently now.

[@MarcosElMalo2]

What specific institutions have become irretrievably corrupted? Do you believe that those institutions were once perfect? If you drop the idea of once perfect institutions now damaged beyond repair, maybe you can take responsibility for improving them or at least repairing their decline.

[@jennifercuddy5663]

@@MarcosElMalo2 What? Not prosecuting multiple people for treason and insurrection and conspiracy to overthrow the USG on behalf of a foreign power, is treason.

[@nevetstrevel4711]

Good introduction but the introduction lasted the whole time no meat. And I wish he would argue why he was right not just assert it. Just seems like another liberal saying that their opponents are facists

[@MarcosElMalo2]

That’s because you weren’t listening carefully. He gave examples. You also demonstrate a basic misunderstanding of opposition to fascism, which falls into two camps. The first camp is composed of both liberals and conservatives that recognize authoritarianism as a common enemy. The second camp is those that oppose fascism because it is a rival to their own authoritarian program, i.e., the Marxist-Leninists and their intellectual descendants. Snyder is clearly in the first camp. He is an opponent of fascism because he recognizes that fascism is a threat to freedom and democracy. Any Burkean conservative (take Stephen Kotkin as an example) takes the same position.