In a recent interview, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, who will speak on Oct. 18, at Wilmington’s Murphy Theatre, said his current New York Times bestseller, “On Freedom,” is his answer to what a better America would look like.
As we approach the Nov. 5 general election, and politically and ideologically diverse American voters are considering the America they want, Snyder’s book sheds historical and aspirational light on our common quest.
Snyder writes, “Freedom is about knowing what we value and bringing it to life. So it depends on what we can do—and that, in turn, depends on others, people we know and people we don’t.”
This fundamental idea that freedom requires both personal agency and a society whose ethos and institutions support the broad, common good has been a through line in my own education and experience, from childhood till now, and chances are you can say the same.
“On Freedom” opens in Clinton County, where Snyder’s parents were born, with the author’s childhood memory of America’s Bicentennial, on July 4, 1976, at his maternal grandparents’ farm.
As Snyder draws lessons from this and other events in his life, he invites his readers to engage in that same kind of reflection to deepen our own understanding of freedom, so that we can protect and expand it.
Here recently, along with a 72-hour power outage and minor tree damage, Hurricane Helene brought me a made-to-order opportunity to put my mind to Snyder’s assignment.
Mobility, one of the five forms of freedom Snyder addresses in “On Freedom,” was my first challenge.
My husband was out of state, and a friend came by to lift the garage door I couldn’t manage by myself, so I could make it to the Saturday standout for Ukraine, a weekly, public witness, in downtown Wilmington, in support of Western democracy.
Another friend made room in her fridge and freezer for items that would have spoiled in mine, and treated me to some delicious meals, good conversation, and Scrabble.
Work space and WiFi at the Wilmington Public Library allowed me to meet a writing deadline, with the bonus of being in note-swapping distance of a retired journalist friend preparing for the adult Christian education class he was teaching.
At another nearby table, a man was on his phone, describing his dream of finding a small house, with a balcony or porch, and getting a car, “maybe a Chevrolet.”
All the while, patrons of different ages and walks of life made themselves at home among the wonders a public library offers to everyone who comes through the door, all of us drawn there by what we value and a desire to bring that to life.
With Snyder’s book open next to my laptop, the highlighted passages about freedom that is personally practiced and communally shared—Snyder names this “solidarity”—came to life around me.
In firm command of American and world history, political science, current events, philosophy, ethics, and personal narrative, Snyder persuasively argues that we can overcome the present autocratic threats to democracy and create a more perfect union, if freedom is our guiding star.
Otherwise, he writes, “If you forget about freedom, you misunderstand the world and change it for the worse.”
Tickets to Snyder’s Oct. 18 Murphy Theatre appearance and copies of “On Freedom” are available at themurphytheatre.org. Books are also available at booksnmore.org.
Net ticket and book proceeds go to Wilmington’s Merefa, Ukraine Sister City Fund for the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Sponsors of “An Evening with Timothy Snyder” are Books ’n’ More, Clinton County Alliance for Compassion and Truth (A.C.T.), Empathy Surplus Network USA, and Wilmington College.
Mary Thomas Watts lives and writes in Wilmington.
