Excellent. One of the best things about the internet is that we can be exposed to the best minds on earth whenever we want.

Greatly appreciate these Politics and Prose author-speaker events being posted and made so widely available. Thanks very much.

Dear Politics & Prose: The Q&A portions of any author talk is significant but PLEASE help your authors by urging attendees to get right to their questions. Unfortunately, based on several P&P videos that I've watched, assorted attendees will hog the mic with lengthy rambling anecdotes, sycophantic praise, and self-absorbed meanderings that present anything but a question. This means other attendees don't get the chance to ask their questions. If your staff doesn't intervene to keep the questions to-the-point, it puts the authors in the awkward position of having to facilitate their own Q&A session. Thanks for considering this point.

This is an excellent book. Conservatives should read it with an open mind. The mistaken belief that "Russia is our friend because Trump says it" is extremely dangerous.

At 17:21 the author mentions "spectacles". My first thought was of the Bread And Circuses offered to the citizens of Rome back in the day to keep them distracted. All the media coverage of Trump has that feel to it, as if it's carefully choreographed, orchestrated theater.

Just finished the book and it was excellent! A must read!

Really really interesting way of seeing the modern western world! 😀 Thanks.

What Mr Snyder thinks about russiagate now after Mueller ´s report?

Minute 11:49-51 What is the name of the Russian author that Professor Timothy Snyder mentions (?)"Uvan Eleen"(?) is "Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin", please?

3:40 he comes to podium.

Snyder is brilliance. Glad he has a voice in these dark times.

Outstanding, yet again

Prof. Snyder makes the mistake common to most experts who are giving a talk in that he doesn't know what to leave out - because for him it's all important. This leads to a hurried, although clearly impassioned, delivery. For the audience information-overwhelm sets in quickly. He would do well to have a third party help him triage his speech material. Having said that, it's great that he is bringing his insight to bear on a very important element of our current world.

cronic fatigue..anxiety....espresso?

More and more, I see Timothy Snyder as one of the leading people providing the intellectual and factual underpinnings for progressive politics.

His definition of nation state seems really too strict. I realize that Italy and Germany were cobbled together 150 years ago, but France, England and Spain have all been nations for at least 500 years. They were also empires, but at the core was a nation of people, who spread their languages around the world.

That one questioner towards the end who touched on patriarchy and capitalism....umm I'm not saying she's "crazy" but it sounded like that she was falling into the trap or false dichotomy that capitalism = patriarchy/masculinity and communism = woman liberation. Now I'm not totally sure if she was pressing that idea or simply expressing it.....but that idea is totally wrong. Because the Communist systems in our world was all about the elimination of free agency. And Free Agency is the crux of modern feminism.

Snyder's point about NATO is a technicality which ignores that the 2013 Ukraine-EU negotiations were scuttled by language in the agreement which would have effectively integrated Ukraine's armed forces into NATO command structure...

Capitalism is in crisis. As working people begin to struggle against the system things will begin to change.

We really need to do more to help Ukraine. Their current struggle for independence is very similar to that of our own in 1775, it's the same story of growing philosophical and political differences causing a colony to battle it's imperial power for freedom and democracy. This time we're playing the role of the big brother though, now we're the established power placing a bet on helping a fledgling state with potential, who's independence incidentally also strengthens our hand against a common enemy. But that's not the main reason we should help... Russia is attacking democracy all over the world and unfortunately democracy is beginning to show cracks and breaks in it's facade. There is no guarantee that the cracks will not grow larger and larger until the whole thing breaks to pieces and there is definitely no guarantee that we will be ok after it all. We have to show initiative and actively start the work of patching the loop holes and exploits which Russia is using to destabilize our way of life. Ukraine is essential to helping us do just that. According to the latest data from the EU, the majority of all recent informational attacks coming from Russia are targeted at Ukraine and it's young democracy. Ukraine is now ground zero for all of the attacks that later hit the EU and the United States, it's bombarded by Russian operatives daily. We can use this to our advantage, as Ukraine's biggest ally we can study and counter all of Russia's attacks right there at ground zero. We can learn to strengthen or perhaps even immunize Ukraine's fledgling democracy against Russia operations and then bring the knowledge home to the west. It would be a win, win for everyone, Ukraine would get the assistance against Russia that they so desperately need and we would get a resilient democracy on Russia's border and the blueprint to beating them before they have the opportunity to bring the fight to our home soil once again.

the russians did the americans a favour.. brought to light the weak areas where america needs to focus to imrpove its societal sitaution.. that highlighting was needed.. shows you what you have to fix is correct i think..

Just seen the talks you posted about this book - great. The talk here is not as good - too much 'read the book - its all in the book.' As for the Russian bot comments here, beware Professor Snyder - they'll soon be after you or they already are. Brilliant historian turned contemporary commentator.

Factual life reality surpasses all man made theoretical models of absolutism and goes on like DNA predefined outcome and like immediate life needs after any heart absorbing theatrical play.

Where was Obama when all this was going on?

this is the only door from which I can actually answer to Mr Snyder..."as I see it" for 1 1/4 hrs you are busy flapping your wings but are unable to get air borne...from your bookstore/coffeehouse". Everyone suffers in wars, but a few actually benefit from them...follow my glance > Bye for now.

Would be enough to analyze Russia- without projecting this totally different system onto the current US-government. This is utterly unappropriate.

What did Obama know and when did he know it?

Russia is not our enemy,

I will sum it up: "America is innocent and Russia is out to get it". Saved you an hour. You're welcome.

I always feel snyder speaks in a pious and pontificating tone - and I find it really annoying.

Great talk. SJW alert towards the end.

This guy is a manipulator.

What a poor and shameful dialog! Yes, send your waste again and again on Russia! However, Russia is a big and frindly land in our world with a peacefull and human leader and so i can sleep in calm very well!

This guy sounds like a conspiracy nut.