SALT

Resistance Reading

Understanding how democracies die is the first step to keeping them alive. These books are the essential curriculum.

All links go to Bookshop.org — supporting independent bookstores, not billionaires.
Browse our full list: Resistance Reading on Bookshop.org

“The one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty.”
— Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free (1955)
01
NEW
On Freedom
Timothy Snyder (2024)
The sequel to On Tyranny. Snyder argues we've lost sight of what freedom means — true freedom is the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together.
→
02
START HERE
On Tyranny
Timothy Snyder (2017)
Twenty lessons from the twentieth century. A pocket guide to resisting authoritarianism, drawn from the darkest chapters of European history.
→
03
ESSENTIAL
How Democracies Die
Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt (2018)
Two Harvard professors show how democracies erode from within — not through coups, but through the slow dismantling of norms by elected leaders.
→
04
NEW
Autocracy, Inc.
Anne Applebaum (2024)
How modern dictators cooperate across borders, sharing tools of repression, propaganda, and kleptocracy to undermine democracy worldwide.
→
05
PATTERN
Strongmen
Ruth Ben-Ghiat (2020)
From Mussolini to the present — how authoritarian leaders use masculinity, propaganda, corruption, and violence to seize and hold power.
→
06
FRAMEWORK
How Fascism Works
Jason Stanley (2018)
The politics of "us and them." Identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, from mythic past to law-and-order rhetoric to anti-intellectualism.
→
07
MEMOIR
Fascism: A Warning
Madeleine Albright (2018)
A former Secretary of State draws from personal experience fleeing fascism as a child and decades of diplomacy to sound the alarm on rising authoritarianism.
→
08
CLASSIC
They Thought They Were Free
Milton Mayer (1955)
Ten ordinary Germans describe how Nazism crept into their lives. A devastating portrait of how good people accommodate evil — one small step at a time.
→
09
FICTION
It Can't Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis (1935)
A populist demagogue wins the presidency and turns America into a fascist state. Written in 1935 — reads like it was written yesterday.
→
10
NOBEL
How to Stand Up to a Dictator
Maria Ressa (2022)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa chronicles her fight for truth in the Philippines, exposing how social media companies enable authoritarian disinformation.
→
11
FOUNDATIONAL
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Hannah Arendt (1951)
The foundational text. Arendt traces the roots of totalitarianism through anti-Semitism, imperialism, and the collapse of the nation-state.
→

Read. Then Act.

Knowledge without action is complicity. Take what you’ve learned and put it to work.

Take Action → Send a Postcard
SALT The Movement · Take Action · The Playbook · Books · Store · Send a Postcard · Contact · The Record