Dar bāb-e āzādī Persiska (Farsi) 2025

The book On Freedom is written by Timothy Snyder, Professor of History and Politics at Yale University and a member of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

As noted in the translator’s introduction: When the future appears as a towering wall, what does “freedom” truly mean? We live in a world where it seems that all forces—from invisible algorithms to overt and covert pressures—push us toward a kind of comforting cynicism: the belief that individual action is meaningless and that survival lies only in retreating to the safe corner of private life. This is the temptation of “negative freedom”—freedom from the pain of the world at the cost of losing the world itself.

In an age when despair feels like the most rational response and isolation seems the safest refuge, Snyder sounds an alarm. He warns that the greatest threat is not external tyranny, but a conception of freedom that becomes an inner prison: “freedom as detachment from everything,” as indifference and the abdication of responsibility. This is the seductive version of negative liberty that calls to us daily and ultimately leaves us alone and defenseless before history.

On Freedom is not an ordinary book. It is a blend of personal memoir, precise historical analysis, and a powerful manifesto for the twenty-first century. In clear, accessible language free from academic obscurity, Snyder introduces five fundamental forms of freedom that can serve as practical tools in everyday life. The book is a guide to reclaiming the power of choice, discovering meaning amid turmoil, and creating new possibilities in a world that urges us to accept limitation.

This work speaks to those who understand that freedom is more than the absence of chains—and who are ready to become the architects of their own freedom.