Historian Timothy Snyder is world-renowned for his books on tyranny and Eastern Europe. His latest book is about how freedom is at stake. On Saturday afternoon 25 January 2025, Sophie Derkzen interviews him at the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague about his book On Freedom.

On Freedom is the equally brilliant and highly topical new book by the renowned Yale historian and author of the bestsellers Bloodlands and On Tyranny, among others.

What is freedom? Why is our freedom at risk? And why is freedom our only chance of survival? Freedom is the core of our Western world, the heart of our democracy, but we have lost sight of what it means, resulting in crisis.

Too many people see freedom as the absence of state power. We think we are free when we can do and say what we want and are hindered as little as possible by the state. But real freedom is not so much freedom from as freedom to - to thrive, to put things on the line for a future we choose and work for together.

Timothy Snyder is a internationally leading historian specialising in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Holocaust. The professor of History at Yale University has published influential studies such as Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Thinking the Twentieth Century (with Tony Judt, 2012); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018) and the highly topical On Freedom (2024).

Sophie Derkzen is a journalist and presenter with a fascination for international politics and culture. On Dutch national broadcaster NPO Radio 1 she presents Bureau Buitenland for VPRO, awarded the prestigious Silver Reiss Microphone for best radio programme of the year in 2022. She made the podcasts Stad in Oorlog: Charkiv een jaar onder vuur (City at War: Kharkiv one year under fire; winner Silver Reiss Microphone 2023) and Generatie Merkel (4**** in de Volkskrant).

Interview with Timothy Snyder has been curated for Writers Unlimited Festival by Ilonka Reintjens.

Festival tip 1: Timothy Snyder, Andrej Koerkov and Lisa Weeda talk about wartime writing during Saturday Night Unlimited (25 January from 20:00 at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag) in the subprogramme Writing in Times of War.

Festival tip 2: for the full festival experience, go to the grand festival events Friday Night Unlimited (24 January) and Saturday Night Unlimited (25 January)! Both nights you choose your own route along some 20 performances, readings and conversations on five stages in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. English and Dutch spoken.

Festivaltip 3: as Writers Unlimited presents its literature festival for 30 years, we celebrate this anniversary with Playing with Fire, a show full of music, dance and literature at Amare (Danstheater) on Sunday afternoon, 26 January. You will see and hear Spinvis, Shirma Rouse, XILLAN, Babs Gons, Joost Oomen, Zaïre Krieger, Claudia Karapanou Flamenco Trio, Royal Conservatoire Dance and percussion group Pulse led by Eli Wing, among others. Book now! Tickets are 11 euros (under 29s or students), or 16 - 35 euros (depending on seat chosen). Note: Dutch spoken.

From 23 to 26 January 2025, Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague is to be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout the city: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, Amare and Paard to Theater Dakota, Theater De Vaillant, the Laakkwartier, Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries, the Institute of Social Studies and De Haagse Hogeschool. With over 120 writers, poets and spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.