A bestselling, National Book Award–winning journalist’s
bracing elucidation of our tumultuous times.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, Masha Gessen stood out from other
journalists for the ability to convey the ominous significance of
Donald Trump’s speech and behavior, unprecedented in a national
candidate. Within forty-eight hours of his victory, the essay
“Autocracy: Rules for Survival” had gone viral, and Gessen’s
coverage of his norm-smashing presidency became essential reading for
a citizenry struggling to wrap their heads around the unimaginable.
Thanks to the special perspective that is the legacy of a Soviet
childhood and two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism
in Russia, Gessen has a sixth sense for signs of autocracy—and the
unique cross-cultural fluency to delineate its emergence to
Americans. Now, as the 2020 race takes shape, this incisive book
provides an indispensable overview of the calamitous trajectory of
the past few years. Gessen not only highlights the corrosion of the
media, the judiciary, and the cultural norms we hoped would save us
but also tells us the story of how a short few years have 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 but also a beacon to recovery—or to enduring,
and resisting, an ongoing assault.