On Tyranny (2017) had been his weakest book before this one, but it was a political pamphlet, not a scholarly study. An uneven book as far as its historical interpretation was concerned, it included a chilling warning of the potentially genocidal consequences of the unfolding environmental crisis. Black Earth (2015) was an attempt to read the Holocaust as a lesson for our time. Bloodlands (2010) enthused professional historians less, but it was a supremely competent history of the region and its terrible 20th century. These books changed the way many of us thought about the history of eastern Europe. Three books made his name among specialists: The Reconstruction of Nations (2003), Sketches from a Secret War (2005) and The Red Prince (2008). Snyder is among the most talented historians of his generation. Refreshingly, Snyder adds that voting for Trump is also caused by the intellectual inferiority of drug-addled brains.

When Americans vote for Donald Trump it is because of 'Russian trolls and bots'. When Germans oppose liberal immigration policies it's because of Russian fake news. When a substantial section of Britons decide they want out of the EU, it's because of Russia's 'cyber campaign'. When Polish politicians stumble over secret recordings showing the level of their corruption, Snyder diagnoses a 'quiet emergence of totalitarianism'. Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom abounds in hyperbole, factual imprecision, speculation, questionable judgment and repetition.

Book the road to unfreedom