From a bestselling National Book Award-winning journalist an essential guide to understanding
resisting and recovering from the ravages 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. 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.
