The 25th title in the Campus Community Book Project is On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, a 2017 book by University of Toronto historian Timothy Snyder that provides instructions for Americans who want to protect democracy from authoritarianism, the selection committee announced this week.
The theme for this year’s selection is civil liberties, and the campus community will be invited to participate in a series of events throughout the year related to that theme, culminating in a March 15, 2027, visit by Snyder to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
Tickets for Snyder’s visit will go on sale to Mondavi Center donors, subscribers and licensed seat holders on Sept. 23, and to members of the general public on Sept. 25.
See ticket options on the Mondavi Center website.
“I love Timothy Snyder’s work and am excited for the conversations that his book On Tyranny will ignite within our community,” said Mary Gallagher, assistant clinical professor with the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and a member of the book project selection committee. “Through his 20 lessons, Snyder helps us reflect on our role as citizens and our responsibility to the future of our community.”
In reflecting on the book, Synder wrote in 2024 that On Tyranny shows ways that people could improve the world by strengthening democracy, adding that he hoped the people of today would be able to learn from the way democracy was eroded by fascism, Nazism and communism in parts of Europe during the 20th century.
“I wrote On Tyranny in a defensive mode; but freedom is something not only to be defended but to be defined and to be celebrated,” Snyder said.
Gallagher said the lessons of On Tyranny connect well to the book project.
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“Among others, Snyder encourages us to read, investigate, make new friends, support causes that are important to us and build trust through small talk — the book project is a platform for all of these,” she said. “This book reminds us all that we have control over the future of our community and provides us with small, concrete ways to have influence over the world we want for ourselves and our children.”
On Tyranny is available from UC Davis Stores at a discounted price of $9.80, and the UC Davis Library has additional copies on hand to loan.
Members of the campus community who want to help plan activities connected to the theme and book are encouraged to join the program planning committee. Activities will kick off in fall quarter and run through the academic year — all are welcome.
25 years of deep discussion
The 2026-27 cycle marks the 25th selection for the Campus Community Book Project, which began in the wake of 9/11 as a way to encourage conversation about challenging topics; past selections have been focused on mental health, gun violence, disability issues, immigration, food insecurity and more.
Megan Macklin, director of campus climate and inclusion initiatives in the Office of Campus and Community Relations, said discussions created by the project have been a way for UC Davis to live out its stated beliefs.
“The Book Project is proudly powered by the UC Davis Principles of Community, putting our university’s values into action: By sharing dialogue and learning collectively, we affirm dignity, respect and connection for all,” Macklin said.
In 2002, the book project’s first selection was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman, a nonfiction title about the cultural misunderstandings and other struggles between Western doctors and a refugee family in Merced that led to difficulty in treating their daughter’s severe epilepsy.
“I’ve been stopped on the sidewalks downtown and in my own neighborhood by people who wanted to talk about the book and the poignant dialogues it raises,” Karen Roth, chair of the inaugural book project committee, said in 2002 as author Anne Fadiman visited campus to discuss her book. Roth died in 2019 and was widely remembered for her work on the book project.
When the first title was announced, then-Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw said she hoped it would bring the campus together.
“I find this project very exciting and I do believe that active participation by our students, faculty and staff will truly promote a greater sense of community on the campus,” she told Dateline UC Davis at the time.
Previous selections for the book project:
- 2002-03: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
- 2003-04: Gandhi’s Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution by Mark Juergensmeyer
- 2004-05: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
- 2005-06: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- 2006-07: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- 2007-08: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
- 2008-09: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
- 2009-10: The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner
- 2010-11: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- 2011-12: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- 2012-13: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- 2013-14: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
- 2014-15: Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin
- 2015-16: The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi
- 2016-17: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel
- 2017-18: Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock
- 2018-19: The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams
- 2019-20: Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge
- 2020-21: Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney
- 2021-22: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- 2022-23: Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons and Punishment by Zach Norris
- 2023-24: Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right by Cynthia Miller-Idriss
- 2024-25: Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronimus
- 2025-26: Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
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Cody Kitaura is the editor of Dateline UC Davis and can be reached by email or at 530-752-1932.