On Freedom

I must say that I savored every thought and word of this book. But, for me, the most revealing standout sections were the preface and the acknowledgments at the beginning and end. The preface jumps right into the deep end with an analysis of the five aspects of positive freedom: sovereignty, unpredictability, mobility, facticity, and solidarity. These core values inform the primacy of freedom as the value of values, which also mirror the stages of human individual growth. The body of the work is then organized along these principles, contrasting these positive attributes with negative freedom, the absence of restrains. Human nature, like nature, in general, abhors a vacuum. Getting rid of restraint does not “automatically” render a good life. Tyranny, banality, and cyber algorithms rush into the vacuum to confuse people’s thinking. The goal of a good society is to promote values that foster positive freedom, a sense of purpose in living, that comes from within. The acknowledgements at the end, fill in the details of how a philosophical treatise was transformed into a powerful tale of moral vignettes that illustrate these principles in unforgettable ways. These stories vividly portray heroic lives of people who find the courage to shrug off tyranny and thought control (even in prisons in America). So many great and caring minds lent their time and effort into polishing this work into its final form.

This is a very detailed book and probably not for the faint of heart or for those who don't read at a middle school level or higher. It is for anyone who is a patriot, loves the USA, and wants to understand the history behind our freedom and how we can work to make the USA a much better place than it has been in the past. Timothy Snyder's other books are a good read for you as well, no matter what your political beliefs may be. It is realistic, not political.

Should be required reading in every history and civics class in our country.

This book is a tougher read than his other books on tyranny and dictators. It is loaded with information and a little hard to keep up with. It would be one to be used in a college classroom. Well written and documents many facts that most would not know.

I do not have words to thank Timothy Snyder enough. He is so on the money in his insights and wishes for fulfilling likes for everyone. I hope it reaches great numbers of people.

This book changed my perspective for 180 degrees. I started to think and act upon it. It is a manual for activism and in most sincere and decent way.

Good

Nearly everyone agrees that freedom is essential. But what exactly is it? How do we promote it? Yale professor Timothy Snyder has thought about these questions more than anyone else I’ve read in years. Well known for his work on the opposite of freedom, like his 2017 book On Tyranny, Snyder has been to many of the places wrecked by tyrants like Hitler and Stalin. I began reading his work Bloodlands about eastern Europe and had to put it down: simply too horrible. Snyder tackles the notion that freedom is the absence of oppression head on. No, he powerfully argues: freedom is something positive, not merely the lack of tyranny. Snyder backs up this claim at length throughout the book, illustrating five ingredients of freedom, why they matter, and how we can develop them in society. Freedom is based on virtues which we are called to live up to and bring to life. On Freedom takes a refreshing, sobering, clear-eyed stance on what is wrong in our world today. Snyder names names, calling out political and social media leaders. But he goes beyond diagnosing the problems to articulate thoughtful and sometimes original solutions. This is not an easy book. But I found it well worth the time. For anyone concerned about where things are going in the world today, this book will provide both answers and hope. They are not easy answers, but they are realistic and doable.

Professor Timothy Snyder has great insight on what is going on in the U.S.A., and he tells it like it is. I highly recommend this book to everyone who is concerned about the current state of affairs with the present U.S. federal government. I also urge anyone who is a MAGA supporter, to read this and his book entitled "On Tyranny". I hope to one day meet Professor Snyder in person and have a like minded conversation about not only the book, but what is going on in the U.S.

Very good to read. Only started yesterday

Much as his earlier book on tyranny, this new one appears at a critical moment for America and the rest of the world. Timothy Snyder undertakes an in-depth research into what it means to be free and what it takes to remain free by defending this freedom..

Lo farei adottare nelle nostre scuole come testo di educazione alla cittadinanza.

I have come to know Timothy Snyder through his work as a historian - a role in which he has learnt other languages to access history from other perspectives in order to seek a deeper understanding of the forces that shape our world today. He is an unassailable historian in my view and a public asset. This book is different. He uses a bit of history and some philosophy to reflect on Freedom quite deeply and builds his reflection around a word that I think is one of the most important new words we must get used to using. And that key word is 'Unfreedom'. Because that is essentially where we are and that is what we are experiencing. Stylistically, the book reads as a stream of consciousness punctuated by facts, that is reduced down to some critical conclusions. Ours is a world dominated by what is actually a vision of freedom that is an exclusively reserved for the rich and powerful but is sold to the masses as populist project. Snyder challenges everything, including the Left who supposedly some of us look to for a remedy. His unpicking of the Left's weaknesses are deft and laser-like and need to be heeded - especially how the Left has allowed the Right to monopolize the concept of freedom. But Snyder also sets out how conservative and progressive outlooks can work together that is so obvious you wonder why it has not been picked up before? But what prevents any epiphany? Well, political funding for a start and Snyder expertly unpicks and debunks the latest faulty (but deliberate) thinking that leads to unfreedom - not freedom. 'Unfreedom' - get used to that word, because it exists in word and in reality. And it must be opposed. We must do better to recognise it. One day you know, in the future, people or beings seeking to understand what happened to us in these times whilst trying to understand the wreckage could do a lot worse than read any of Tim Snyder's writings. What happened is all there in painstaking detail, put together by one of the most capable witnesses to our age. Highly recommended.