Surviving Autocracy

Written by Masha Gessen

Narrated by Masha Gessen

“When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.” —The New York Times

“A reckoning with what has been lost in the past few years and a map forward with our beliefs intact.” —Interview

As seen on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and heard on NPR’s All Things Considered: the bestselling, National Book Award–winning journalist offers an essential guide to understanding, resisting, and recovering from the ravages of our tumultuous times.

This incisive book provides an essential guide to understanding and recovering from the calamitous corrosion of American democracy over the past few years. Thanks to the special perspective that is the legacy of a Soviet childhood and two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia, Masha Gessen has a sixth sense for the manifestations of autocracy—and the unique cross-cultural fluency to delineate their emergence to Americans. Gessen not only anatomizes the corrosion of the institutions and cultural norms we hoped would save us but also tells us the story of how a short few years changed us from a people who saw ourselves as a nation of immigrants to a populace haggling over a border wall, heirs to a degraded sense of truth, meaning, and possibility. Surviving Autocracy is an inventory of ravages and a call to account but also a beacon to recovery—and to the hope of what comes next.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Jun 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9780593211496

Masha Gessen

MASHA GESSEN is a journalist who has written for Slate, Seed, the New Republic, the New York Times, and other publications, and is the author of numerous books, including The Future is History, which has been nominated for the National Book Award. 

Reviews for Surviving Autocracy

[michael_lilly-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the best analysis of Trump's first term, and understanding what happened in his first term is the best way to understand what is going on in his second term.

[bibleblaster · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the best analysis I've read thus far of the Trump...ummm, experience (for lack of a better word). And speaking of words, I especially appreciate her analysis of how language functions (or fails to function, "using the language of political disagreement, judicial procedure, or partisan discussion to describe something that was crusing the system that such terminology was invented to describe") to solidify the power of Trumpism.
This ain't over, folks. If we want to understand what we're up against, this is not a bad place to start.

[rickgeissal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent non-fiction explanation of how autocratic movements occur and sometimes lead to autocracies, with an examination of specific acts and events in the current Administration. The writer is a brilliant, vastly experienced and very knowledgeable scholar of Russia and the U.S. The book is clear, direct and compelling about where we are, how we got here and where we are headed unless major action is taken.

[judiex · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While the administration is officially over, though many of his supporters still deny it and he says he will run again in 2024, Masha Gessem’s words are an important tool in trying to understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future.
Gessen’s childhood was spent in the Soviet Union. Afterwards, “she spent two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia.” What she observed there she saw happening in the US under the Trump administration: Packing the courts, becoming an authoritarian who bypassed our democratic laws. The Constitution was unimportant to him.
His disinterest in learning anything in his job or developing his own ideas were evident from the beginning. At one of his Inaugural balls, the cake was a copy of Obama’s 2013 cake except that Obama’s was real; most of Trump’s was Styrofoam.
In SURVIVING AUTOCRACY, Green analyzes his actions, often bringing a unique perspective, very helpful for historians and future voters and politicians. Even with him out of office, there are still too many people, including elected officials, who still buy his line, believe the election was stolen, send him millions of dollars, and are trying to severely break our voting system.
The book was written in 2020 and was reissued in paperback in June 2021. It is definitely worthwhile reading.

[evano_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Would have been 5 stars if she had been able to wait and tell us how to survive this election...

[mcdenis-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a poingnent reminder that there is a human imperfect person behind the curtain of obscurity in Washington, D.C. Gessen with the deftness of a skilled word surgeon exposes the iies and the Alt-Reality of Trump and the Trumpites. The key to the myth of “Make America Great” is the raw use of power to seemingly capture the illusion that we can retreat to the past and save “Whiteness” through racial intolerance, political bullying and very visible corruption while swimming in the swamp of moral uncertainty. There is hope. There are new ways “bubbling up” in our political lanscape as Gessen puts it that offer dignity, solidarity, and equality rather than competition, exclusion and poverty (for those labeled losers or deplorables). This is a book well worth reading.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important book, a book that is a uncomfortable wake up call, but those who need it will doubtless not pick it up. If they do, they will either not believe, nor care. Such is this Presidents power over his base, despite actions that shows he really doesn't care. Presents analysis of how he has preverted language, the meaning of words, neutralizing journalists and fostering mistrust in their reporting and what we read and hear in the news. So much else is included but I found it balanced between what us happening and hope that we can recover from it and this administration.

How we lose our democracy, how unreality and the unimaginable can become normality. Other dictators have used this template, making a country smaller, cut off by claiming they are doing it for the people's good, for their safety. Sound familiar?

Yet, a choice remains. It is up to us and my fervent hope is that this unreal reality show will be cancelled in November.

ARC by Edelweiss.