Liberation Lit

Anti-Fascist Readings

While browsing through BlueSky, I came across a post that scolded liberals on the site to task for recommending political books to read in response to the fact that our new leaders are Nazi fanatics. The poster’s point was that reading a book wasn’t doing anything. That recommending political books is not asking people like me to accomplish something; it was asking us to do what we already like doing—reading books. At least protesting in the street—as ineffectual as that form of protest usually is—is doing something. A protest march is something that other citizens can see and perhaps be inspired by. That made me reconsider books as a tool for fighting tyranny—is reading in the face of fascism nothing more than mental masturbation? Will reading a book prevent one kid from being deported? That post made me feel guilty about recommending books as a tool of fighting tyrants. Nonetheless, here I go.

What I’m calling “liberation lit” are not political texts or manifestos. I am more interested in memoirs and historical narratives of struggles against tyranny. The reasons are two-fold: 1) I like stories, and 2) these writers explain—often in great detail—how they acted against the fascist powers in their country, how the governments responded, and how they survived (or didn’t, as in the case of Alexander Nevalny). These writers provide well-thought out strategies for fighting back, but also for coping. Coping is important: after all, none of the writers I will talk about have succeeded in achieving liberty for the citizens of their own countries: Russia, China, and Iran.