It echoes analyses and arguments from other Trump books that probe more deeply into particular arenas, yet it is not redundant; this book does not repeat as much as it distills. The result is almost the Platonic ideal of the anti-Trump Trump book, as though manufactured in a lab to affirm every suspicion, stoke every fear and answer every question by those readers desperately seeking a 'recovery from Trumpism,' as Gessen writes. The book’s implied 'we,' though sometimes encompassing the nation in full, is usually limited to the horrified. And those who are horrified by Trump will find that Surviving Autocracy is a time capsule packed with all their anxieties, and all their certainties, too. It offers discomfort and reassurance at once.

When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.

A relatively slim yet potent book, Surviving Autocracy is an essential read for anyone who says that all politicians are the same.

During the past few years of Donald Trump’s deranged presidency, if there is one writer I turn to it is Masha Gessen, whose piercing clarity is gemlike and refusal to equivocate precious.

Gessen's viewpoint may be head-spinning for many, especially those who believe today's maelstrom of disease, unemployment and racial violence represent failures by the incumbent president.

... a righteously furious account of the damage that Trump has inflicted on the country.

Gessen’s credentials as an observer of autocracy are impeccable.

... a polemic take rather than a work of balanced reportage – and that is part of the point. For even to attempt to report on or analyse Trump as if he were a conventional president is make a category error. Reporters or news organisations attempting to give the US president a fair wind by not calling his incessant lies lies are not being balanced – they are contributing to further imbalance by allowing the failed property developer to further disorient the public without proper checks. And of course Trump won’t be grateful for their attempts at impartiality: he wants adulation, not balance.

... a blistering appraisal.

Gessen’s is a clarion voice in the darkness, offering a sobering but sharp-witted analysis of how American society has changed under Trump and how democratic values and practices might yet survive. With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon, Gessen’s rallying cry is a vital and pressing reminder of what is at stake..

... [a] brisk, trenchant account.

Many writers have chronicled the Trump administration’s missteps and crimes, but few as concisely as Gessen, and her book belongs on the shelf alongside Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny and Amy Siskind’s The List as a record of how far we have fallen. Gessen is a Suetonius for our time, documenting the death of the old America while holding out slim hope for its restoration..