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.
