59 pages • 1-hour read
On Freedom
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racial violence, antisemitism, war, ecological crisis, and mass incarceration.
Freedom as Communal Responsibility
One of Snyder’s central arguments in On Freedom is that liberty cannot be reduced to the absence of interference. The idea of “negative freedom,” long influential in Western political thought, suggests that people are free when no external obstacles or authorities constrain them. Snyder critiques this view as inadequate and repressive, arguing that it ignores the embodied and social conditions that make agency possible. As he writes, “Negative freedom is not a misunderstanding but a repressive idea. It is itself a barrier: a barrier of an intellectual and moral kind” (39). By labeling negative freedom as an obstacle, Snyder shows how defining liberty only as “freedom from” produces passivity and vulnerability rather than sovereignty.
Instead, he presents freedom as responsibility—an active capacity cultivated in relationship with others and supported by democratic institutions. Drawing on Edith Stein, who distinguished between the object-body (Körper) and the lived body (Leib), Snyder explains that freedom begins not in isolation but in recognition: We know ourselves as subjects only by acknowledging others as subjects too. Empathy is an essential form of knowledge, without which individuals fall prey to manipulation. Historical examples reinforce this claim. Under Nazi racial ideology, Jews were reduced to objects, and sovereignty—the capacity to act—was destroyed. Similarly, in contemporary America, treating freedom as “freedom from” has left people vulnerable to disinformation and authoritarian appeals.
Snyder also stresses that freedom requires material and generational supports. Parents’ time and care, especially mothers’, create the attention and stability that children need to develop agency. Policies that reduce unfreedom around caregiving, education, and reproductive rights are thus essential for liberty. “Freedom never just means government leaving us alone; nor does it mean our leaving government alone” (248), he observes. This reframing counters slogans of negative liberty, underscoring that democratic freedom requires mutual responsibility between citizens and institutions.
The larger takeaway is that liberty cannot survive as a passive inheritance or a shield from interference. For Snyder, freedom is a daily practice of recognition, responsibility, and support. This redefinition grounds the concept in lived realities, pressing readers to reconsider their role in sustaining democratic life.
Solidarity as a Prerequisite for Liberty
Throughout On Freedom, Snyder insists that liberty is a collective achievement. Freedom depends on communities, institutions, and acts of solidarity that sustain conditions for agency. This emphasis challenges popular notions that equate freedom with rugged individualism or unregulated markets. Instead, Snyder presents solidarity as the foundation that makes personal choice meaningful.
His argument becomes clearest in the fifth form of freedom, solidarity itself. Snyder defines voting as an act of “applied solidarity” in that the voter makes political choices with and for others. He argues that free speech, a core democratic value enshrined as the first amendment in the US Bill of Rights, is a communal achievement rather than a solitary act: Words matter only when communities protect witnesses, preserve records, and verify testimony. In this framing, liberty requires the maintenance of civic structures and social trust. Snyder cites dissident slogans from the Soviet bloc—“freedom is indivisible” (217)—to stress that when others are unfree, one’s own freedom is endangered as well.
Historical and contemporary examples reinforce the point. Civil rights struggles in the United States demonstrate how collective action expands liberty, while mass incarceration shows how denying freedom to some corrodes it for all. Snyder also critiques libertarianism, calling it an “ideology of submission to the nonexistent ‘free market’” (230). By relying on impersonal economic forces, libertarian thought neglects the solidarity needed to build schools, healthcare, and infrastructure that make mobility possible.
Ukraine’s resistance during the Russian invasion provides Snyder’s most powerful example of solidarity in action. Zelensky’s declaration “The president is here” (34) embodies courage and the presence of leadership rooted in community. Citizens’ willingness to fight, endure hardship, and support one another demonstrates how solidarity enables freedom even in the direst conditions.
Snyder’s theme of solidarity reminds readers that liberty is not a possession but a relationship. It emerges when individuals act with and for others, building institutions and bonds that protect everyone. By redefining freedom as indivisible, Snyder calls for a deeper appreciation of mutual responsibility in sustaining democratic life.
Truth and Historical Memory as Safeguards Against Authoritarianism
Snyder’s fourth form of freedom, factuality, underscores his conviction that truth is essential for liberty. A society without shared facts cannot sustain sovereignty, unpredictability, mobility, or solidarity. Instead, it devolves into spectacle and manipulation, conditions authoritarian regimes exploit. As Snyder warns, “Any vacuum of facts and values will be filled with spectacle and war” (32). This aphorism captures his thesis: When truth is stripped away, chaos and violence rush in, leaving no foundation for freedom.
The historical record offers stark examples. Under Stalin, the party line constantly shifted, forcing citizens into “doublethink.” Under Nazism, the “big lie” about Jewish people justified mass murder and bound perpetrators to atrocity. In both cases, denial of facts erased the conditions for judgment and agency. Dissidents in Eastern Europe resisted by chronicling everyday truths, showing that factuality requires human effort and courage. Snyder connects these precedents to the present, where disinformation and denial undermine freedom worldwide.
Contemporary challenges to factuality include climate denial, social media manipulation, and the “big lie” about the 2020 US election. Snyder argues that such falsehoods corrode freedom by immobilizing citizens in fear, scapegoating victims, and institutionalizing distrust. “The Internet cannot report. It can only repeat” (202), he writes, highlighting how bearing witness and verifying facts distinguishes freedom from passive manipulation. Algorithms that recycle content accelerate this process, narrowing people into predictable categories. Against this, Snyder emphasizes the role of journalism, science, and cultural memory as bulwarks of freedom. He points to “little truths,” such as local reporting, as essential defenses against authoritarian narratives.
Factuality also underlies Snyder’s broader theme of historical memory. By remembering atrocities, acknowledging injustices, and preserving records, societies equip themselves to resist denial. Snyder’s metaphors of “news deserts” and “news fountains” dramatize the stakes: Without factual foundations, freedom dries up.
The takeaway is clear: Liberty cannot exist in a world without truth. Facts provide the ground on which values can be debated and choices made. By presenting factuality as a form of freedom, Snyder urges readers to see truth not as a luxury but as a civic necessity that safeguards democracy against authoritarian threats.
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