How to Be a Dissident

‘Invites us to learn from those more courageous than ourselves’ TIMOTHY SNYDER

‘Profound … feels essential in these times’ SARAH BAKEWELL

‘This book reminded me how to be brave’ RENI EDDO-LODGE

An invigorating guide to fighting back – part philosophy, part history and part how-to guide for living with integrity in an age of authoritarian drift.

How do we push back in a world where political leaders wield fear and where social media misinforms? We need role models to show us how, and here, acclaimed writer Gal Beckerman goes looking for them.

Drawing on the stories of dissidents from around the globe and across time, from Socrates to Ai Weiwei, and Hannah Arendt to Iris Murdoch, Beckerman reveals the defining characteristics these extraordinary figures share and how they might equip anyone navigating the pressures of modern tyranny.

Structured around ten qualities – among them, Be Pessimistic, Be Funny, Be Reckless and Be Immortal – this illuminating book charts a dissident’s journey from the solitary moment of recognising the truth, through the risks of speaking it and on to the last impact they can have.

Urgent and inspiring, Beckerman shows us that dissidence is a human capacity that we can all cultivate: a refusal to betray one’s inner voice, no matter how great the forces around us. How to Be a Dissident lights the way.

‘Urgent, wise, and immensely compelling … Everyone should read this book’ CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Emperor’s Children

‘A sharp, cogent analysis of what dissidents really do to fight repressive regimes’ ANNE APPLEBAUM, author of Autocracy, Inc.

About the author

Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas, a New York Times notable book, and When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, which won the Sami Rohr Prize. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. He has a PhD from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.