Timothy Snyder

@timothysnyder.bsky.social

483867 Followers 101 Following

Temerty Professor of Modern European History, Munk School, University of Toronto; Permanent Fellow, IWM Vienna; Emeritus Levin Professor, Yale. Author of "On Freedom," "On Tyranny," "Our Malady," "Road to Unfreedom," "Black Earth," and "Bloodlands"

Text card Title: Utopias of Violence Text: The war in Iran began with a dream of violence. The question now is whether the nightmare that followed returns to the United States. The most important lesson to be learned from the American defeat is that the use of force does not magically lead to the outcome you want. This is not a point that is likely to be taken in the White House. And so the rest of us have to be ready to talk about, and thereby prevent, Trump's obvious wish: the use of military force inside the United States to preserve his power. From: "Thinking about..." snyder.substack.com
Text card Title: Substack Live with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer Headshots of Timothy Snyder, Jake Sullivan, and Jon Finer, with their respective names. Text: Substack Live with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer on Iran and the U.S. position on the global stage. 3:00pm ET, June 22nd, on thelonggame.substack.com
Text card Title: "Substack Live with Joyce Vance" Headshots of Timothy Snyder and Joyce Vance with their respective names. Text: Substack Live with Joyce Vance about the state of the U.S., democracy, and the slide to authoritarianism. 4:30pm ET, June 22nd on joycevance.substack.com
Text card Title: "Capitulation Day" Text: "This war was a parade of Trump’s incompetence at every possible level from the beginning. To win a war requires understanding the politics of the other side and how it might be changed. Trump, Hegseth and the others treated the Iranian leadership as cartoon characters who would immediately do what Americans wanted as soon as the bombs fell. The Americans had no strategy -- no sense of how violence could change politics -- and it did not occur to them that the Iranians would have one. Once the Iranians did the obvious, which was to respond to American long-range strikes with their own, and close the Straits of Hormuz, the war was over, and they had won. The Americans had no second move, except to claim that they had won when they had lost (which they are, laughably, still doing)." From "Thinking about..." Full essay via link in profile
Event announcement card. Top reads "Substack Live with Ruth Ben-Ghiat" Headshots of Timothy Snyder and Ruth Ben-Ghiat with their respective names Text: "Thinking Live with Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the state of democracy at home and abroad" 3:00PM (ET) June 15th on snyder.substack.com
Text card Heading: Substack Live with Rep. Jake Auchincloss Headshots of Timothy Snyder and Rep. Jake Auchincloss, with their respective names. Text: "Thinking Live" with Rep. Jake Auchincloss on Iran, Ukraine, and big ideas for the future 03:15PM (ET) June 8th On snyder.substack.com
A child's drawing with letters spelling out "Freedom"
A public engagement art installation. Text at the top reads "#HappyWall." Beneath are squares on hinges that open to reveal messages and pictures that people have left there.
Text card: Getting rid of Stephen Colbert is a sign of weakness, not of strength. Why be afraid of the truth? Why be afraid of comedians? Keep telling the truth. Find media who tell the truth. Stay with it
Selfie of Timothy Snyder wearing a Vyshyvanka.
Announcement card Top reads: Substack Live with Lawrence Lessig Headshots of Timothy Snyder and Lawrence Lessig, with their respective names Text: Thinking Live with Lawrence Lessig on Super PACs and dark money in politics. 3:15PM ET, April 30 On snyder.substack.com
A picture taken from among people marching down a street as part of the Cincinnati #NoKings event. There is a person in an inflatable frog costume, and people are carrying signs. One sign says "No Kings" and another says "All Children Are Our Children. ICE Out"
A selfie of Timothy Snyder in the crowd at the Cincinnati, Ohio No Kings event. There is a large crowd behind him, many people carrying signs. A sign directly behind him says "Orange Lies Matter."
Substack Live annoucement Top reads: "Substack Live with Heather Cox Richardson" Image has headshots of Timothy Snyder and Heather Cox Richardson with their names. Text: Timothy Snyder in conversation with Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson on the state of politics in America, history, and effective resistance strategies. 1:00pm ET March 25 On snyder.substack.com
An image of Trump in a toddler's high chair, dressed as a king in ermine and velvet robes and a jeweled crown on his head. He has a golden pacifier in his mouth. On the high chair's tray he is holding a Diet Coke and there is a container of Macdonald's french fries. The words "No Kings" are written across the image.
Graphics card promoting an online live conversation. Top reads: "Lucid Substack Live with Ruth Ben-Ghiat" Headshots of Timothy Snyder and Ruth Ben-Ghiat with their respective names. "Timothy Snyder in conversation with NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the state of contemporary politics and applicable tools of resistance." 12:30pm ET today, March 4th, on snyder.substack.com
Graphics card. Title: "Thinking live: Conversation" March 3rd, 3:30pm ET Headshots of Tim Snyder and Janice Stein with their names. snyder.substack.com
Graphics card. Reads at the top: Thinking Live Conversation, February 28th, 12:00pm ET. Headshots of Tim Snyder and Phillips O'Brien with their respective names. snyder.substack.com
Text card: Thinking About "Four Years" "Exactly four years of war, as of today. The cemeteries in Ukraine are larger than they should be. Fresh graves change the landscapes, as seen from a car or a train; the short spans of life, seen inscribed in stone, alter the reaction of the heart. The number four did not come to us. We brought it with us. Like 216, or like 100,000, the number four arrived because of what we failed to do. Do we count? Or are we just counting?" Read more at https://snyder.substack.com
Graphics card. Text at the top says Substack, February 23rd, 4:00pm. Below are headshots of Tim Snyder and Jim Acosta with their names. JimAcosta.Substack.Com
Graphics card. Text at the top: Thinking Live, February 23rd, 1:00pm. Below are headshots of Timothy Snyder and Paul Krugman with their names. Snyder.substack.com
Graphics card. Reads at the top: "Thinking Live, February 23rd, 12:00pm." There are headshots of Timothy Snyder and David Pepper, each labeled with their name. Snyder.substack.com
Text card: Thinking About... "Watching the Olympics from Ukraine" "We cannot be free without the memory of others who suffer, without recalling the people who are suffering now; in this night, in this place, during this air raid alert, I think of Ukraine, where I am: but it could be Sudan, or Gaza, or Iran, or concentration camps in Russia, or China, or America, and all of the history that we choose to forget, and how that forgetfulness helped bring us our present predicament. Do Americans remember, for example, how much hatred greeted Tommie Smith and John Carlos when they wore black gloves and raised their fists on the podium after winning sprinting medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City?" Read more at Snyder.Substack.com
Text card reads: Thinking about... Venezuela: The Precedents At the moment, it looks much more like an American attempt to remove a rival for power and clear the way for an American imperialism directed not so much against Maduro as against Venezuelans as a people. It was striking to hear Donald Trump describe the extraction of Maduro as an “extraordinary military operation,” since this is essentially the same language that Vladimir Putin used in his speech announcing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Read more at Snyder.Substack.com
Text reading: ICE Detainee Dies After Being Held at a Troubled Jailhouse in Newark. Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, was one of four migrants to die in the past week after medical emergencies in detention centers in New Jersey, Michigan, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
"One way to criticize the text is to imagine that it is intended as a peace settlement and then note some shortcomings. But this is to normalize a document that obviously has other purposes than peace: namely, imperialism and profiteering. The fundamental problem of this text is its deliberate and characteristically Russian unreality. The text begins from the world as it is not."
Graphic card reading: Thinking Live with Michael Weiss, "U.S. Promotion of Russian interests in Ukraine," 11/24 at 2:00 p.m. ET. snyder.substack.com. The card includes photos of Michael Weiss and Timothy Snyder
An “I voted” sticker. It says “Yo voté” at the top and “I voted” at the bottom. It has a picture of a frog on a pedestal, drawn by a school kid, and the year 2025.
Picture of Timothy Snyder sitting and writing outside the U.S. Capitol.
Image of book cover. Blank cover with the text: "On Freedom. Timothy Snyder."
Screenshot of a post by Bernie Sanders. It lists money that Donald Trump has received in 2025. $3 billion: mostly from crypto $940 million: law firms $400 million plane: Qatar $36 million: CBS $25 million: Meta $24 million: YouTube $16 million: ABC $10 million: X Now $230 million from DOJ?
Poster with an image of a frog and the words “Don’t Obey”
Timothy Snyder speaking, surrounded by a crowd.
Timothy Snyder standing with Cookie Monster, next to an American flag
Rally sign reads “I am Aunt Tifa. Heard you were looking for me!”
Sign says “Bubbes for Freedom” and has a sticker of a grandmother with her grandchildren, a sticker saying “No Kings in America”, another saying “No Kings No Kings,” and a sticker with a crossed out crown.
A headshot of Timothy Snyder standing in front of an antique American flag.