Historian Timothy Snyder Teaches a Free Course on Hitler, Stalin & How “It” Can Happen Here

When the his­to­ri­an Tim­o­thy Sny­der left Yale for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in 2024, he took with him the prac­tice of occa­sion­al­ly putting his course lec­tures online, mak­ing them avail­able to any­one who cares to learn from them. Above, you can watch ten lec­tures from his recent course Hitler and Stal­in Today. In this course:

Sny­der exam­ines the Nazi and Sovi­et respons­es to the new glob­al­ized world they shared. The course begins with the colo­nial back­ground that made total­i­tar­i­an­ism pos­si­ble, and which remains an essen­tial ele­ment of our pol­i­tics now. Their ide­olo­gies are described as world­views and as prac­ti­cal pol­i­tics, with an empha­sis on the rea­sons for their appeal. Atten­tion to their poli­cies of mass killing, essen­tial events of twen­ti­eth-cen­tu­ry his­to­ry, instruct us about how “it” can hap­pen here. The study of dis­si­dent thought helps us to see con­nec­tions between his­tor­i­cal predica­ments and our own, and instructs us about pos­si­ble reac­tions as indi­vid­u­als and as cit­i­zens. The course asks what we have learned from the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry and what lessons we should car­ry for­ward.

This course is for “any­one inter­est­ed in under­stand­ing the rela­tion­ship between his­to­ry and con­tem­po­rary democ­ra­cy.” You can stream the lec­tures above, or watch them on YouTube.

Hitler and Stal­in Today will be added to our col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent 

20 Lessons from the 20th Cen­tu­ry About How to Defend Democ­ra­cy from Author­i­tar­i­an­ism, Accord­ing to Yale His­to­ri­an Tim­o­thy Sny­der

They Study Author­i­tar­i­an­ism. And They’re Leav­ing the U.S.: Why Three Yale Pro­fes­sors Have Moved to U. Toron­to

The Mak­ing of Mod­ern Ukraine: A Free Online Course from Yale Pro­fes­sor Tim­o­thy Sny­der

Actor John Lith­gow Reads 20 Lessons on Tyran­ny, Penned by His­to­ri­an Tim­o­thy Sny­der