Erasing History

De: Jason Stanley

Narrado por: Dion Graham

“I’ve never read a book that is as timely, urgent and essential as this one. A battle plan for keeping this nation from falling into fascism.”—Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness

From the bestselling author of How Fascism Works, a searing confrontation with the far right’s efforts to rewrite history and undo a century of progress on race, gender, sexuality, and class.

The human race finds itself again under threat of a rising global fascist movement. In the United States, democracy is under attack by an authoritarian movement that has found fertile ground among the country’s conservative politicians and voters, but similar movements have found homes in the hearts and minds of people all across the globe. To understand the shape, form, and stakes of this assault, we must go back to extract lessons from our past.

Democracy requires a common understanding of reality, a shared view of what has happened, that informs ordinary citizens’ decisions about what should happen, now and in the future. Authoritarians target this shared understanding, seeking to separate us from our own history to destroy our self-understanding and leave us unmoored, resentful, and confused. By setting us against each other, authoritarians represent themselves as the sole solution.

In authoritarian countries, critical examination of those nations’ history and traditions is discouraged if not an outright danger to those who do it. And it is no accident that local and global institutions of education have become a battleground, the authoritarian right’s tip of the spear, where learning and efforts to upend a hierarchal status quo can be put to end by coercion and threats of violence. Democracies entrust schools and universities to preserve a common memory of positive change, generated by protests, social movements, and rebellions. The authoritarian right must erase this history, and, along with it, the very practice of critical inquiry that has so often been the engine of future progress.

In Erasing History, Yale professor of philosophy Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the authoritarian right’s attacks on education, identifies their key tactics and funders, and traces their intellectual roots. He illustrates how fears of a fascist future have metastasized, from hypothetical threat to present reality. And he shows that hearts and minds are won in our schools and universities—places, he explains, that democratic societies across the world are now ill-prepared to defend against the fascist assault currently underway.

Deeply informed and urgently needed, Erasing History is a global call to action for those who wish to preserve democracy—in America and abroad—before it is too late.

©2024 Jason Stanley (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Well written, informative and terrifying.

Given it's recent release, this book is still very relevant...maybe too relevant given current events.

A Must Read.

This is a road too often traveled and the US is blindly driving over the speed limit.

The sobering reality of fascists.

What I liked the most was learning how fascists want to form the world based on their own vision of reality. This should help us prevent this from happening on a worldwide scale.

Should be required reading!

Very insightful on what could happen to America, if we allow it. It should be required reading for anyone living in a democracy

statered banger

thought it was all over the place but I understood what it was getting across well

A important book

Jason Stanley’s clear vision of how and why authoritarianism is rising should be required reading in all high schools.

Details and interpretation matter

I appreciate the balanced and thoughtful approach of this discussion. History must be considered with consciousness of who is doing the telling and why.

A poignant read for our time

A poignant walk through history to explain how we got here...again...and what we can do about it going forward.

A clear and devastating indictment of current fascist regimes controlling the US and elsewhere.

The detailed history of fascist movements and enabling structures of colonialism and theocracy were powerful and enlightening.

Required reading.

The US Congress should be required to read and test out on this book. If they fail, they resign.