What he has done here is distill all that down into a slim book that can be read in an evening, but will leave one thinking, “can it happen here?” It is clear that the author thinks it can and he is writing so that Americans will not be taken by surprise. The author’s research is on Nazism, fascism, and communism, particularly around the Holocaust. It is plain that this book has appealed to the apprehensions of many. At one point it was a number one bestseller in the Washington Post listings, and is currently at number three in the latest New York Times paperback non-fiction category. The other unexpected thing about this book is that it is currently selling like crazy. Instead, what I received was a “pocket book” sized paperback with twenty pithy lessons on tyranny summarized in titles of six words or less, with a short paragraph summary at the beginning of lessons, the longest of which was nine pages. I selected it in one of the review programs I am a part of expecting to receive a standard size book that was a treatise on tyranny, particularly given the academic background of its author, a Yale historian. This has been an unexpected book for me in several ways. Summary: A Yale historian d raws twenty lessons from fascist and communist movements of the twentieth century and applies them to the American context.
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