On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

We're living in a time when publishers have rediscovered the power of the pamphlet, of pocket-sized manifestos like these, which both grew out of social-media posts that went viral. Snyder, a scholar of the murderous wars and regimes of Eastern Europe in books such as Bloodlands, responded to the emergency of the election with twenty lessons, both personal and political ("Do not obey in advance," "Be wary of paramilitaries," "Make eye contact and small talk"), that are, at once, calm, horrifying, and rousing. Adichie's fifteen suggestions, meanwhile, grew from a longer-term necessity: a request from a friend for advice on how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Just as Snyder's lessons are grounded in the European history he knows best, Adichie's are local to the Nigeria her friend's daughter will be raised in but are applicable anywhere.