Ukraine and On Tyranny: New Edition

Twenty new lessons, in a new audiobook. I thought you would want to know.

I wanted to let you know about something that I have just done. I have just finished some long sessions in a studio, recording a new and much longer version of On Tyranny. It includes a thorough exploration of the Russo-Ukrainian war. This audiobook preserves the twenty lessons and twenty chapters of On Tyranny, which I read in about two hours. They are and remain:

Lesson One: Do Not Obey in Advance

Lesson Two: Defend Institutions

Lesson Three: Beware the One-Party State

Lesson Four: Take Responsibility for the Face of the World

Lesson Five: Remember Professional Ethics

Lesson Six: Be Wary of Paramilitaries

Lesson Seven: Be Reflective if You Must be Armed

Lesson Eight: Stand Out

Lesson Nine: Be Kind to Our Language

Lesson Ten: Believe in Truth

Lesson Eleven: Investigate

Lesson Twelve: Make Eye Contact and Small Talk

Lesson Thirteen: Practice Corporeal Politics

Lesson Fourteen: Establish a Private Life

Lesson Fifteen: Contribute to Good Causes

Lesson Sixteen: Learn from Peers in Other Countries

Lesson Seventeen: Listen for Dangerous Words

Lesson Eighteen: Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives

Lesson Nineteen: Empire and Integration

Lesson Twenty: Be as Courageous as You Can

Then we have twenty new lessons, delivered as conversational lectures, on the history, ideology, and politics of the Russian invasion and the Ukrainian resistance. These new lessons are much longer: about eight hours. I am trying to answer as many of the big questions as I can, informally but seriously. I’ve spent a quarter of a century working on Ukraine and Russia, and much of what I think I understand about democracy and authoritarianism I learned there. Indeed, much of what I wrote in On Tyranny actually had to do with Ukraine and Russia, so in some way I am closing a circle here:

Lesson One: Connections: Why On Tyranny

Lesson Two: A Twenty-First Century Test

Lesson Three: Fascist Eternity

Lesson Four: The Politics of Time

Lesson Five: Vikings, Khazars, and Slavs

Lesson Six: Valdemar, Volodymyr, and Vladimir

Lesson Seven: Renaissance, Reformation, Rebellion

Lesson Eight: Colonists and Cossacks

Lesson Nine: The Beautiful Language

Lesson Ten: Nation as Culture and Choice

Lesson Eleven: Brotherland

Lesson Twelve: Communist Colonialism

Lesson Thirteen: Nazi Colonialism

Lesson Fourteen: 1938, 1939, and 1940

Lesson Fifteen: Schizofascism

Lesson Sixteen: Ukraine, 1945-2005

Lesson Seventeen: The Meaning of Maidan

Lesson Eighteen: Ukraine and America

Lesson Nineteen: Empire and Integration

Lesson Twenty: Courage

That’s the new part of the table of contents. It gives you an idea, I hope. Published here for the first time.

My proceeds from the new audiobook will be donated to humanitarian causes in Ukraine. If you would like to make donations to causes now, please see my earlier posts.