An invig­o­rat­ing guide to fight­ing back — part phi­los­o­phy, part his­to­ry, and part man­u­al for liv­ing with integri­ty in an age of con­for­mi­ty and author­i­tar­i­an drift

How do we push back in a world where polit­i­cal lead­ers wield fear and intim­i­da­tion? Where dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy dehu­man­izes and flat­tens us? We need role mod­els, and in this engag­ing book, acclaimed writer Gal Beck­er­man goes look­ing for them. Draw­ing on the sto­ries of dis­si­dents from around the globe and across time, from Socrates to Ai Wei­wei, and thinkers like Han­nah Arendt and Iris Mur­doch, Beck­er­man reveals the defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics these extra­or­di­nary fig­ures share, a set of attrib­ut­es and prac­tices for any­one nav­i­gat­ing the pres­sures of mod­ern tyran­ny.

Struc­tured around ten qual­i­ties — among them, Be Pes­simistic, Be Fun­ny, Be Reck­less, and Be Immor­tal — this illu­mi­nat­ing, sur­pris­ing book blends intel­lec­tu­al his­to­ry, biog­ra­phy, and cul­tur­al crit­i­cism. It charts a dissident’s jour­ney from the soli­tary moment of rec­og­niz­ing the truth, through the risks of speak­ing it, to the lega­cy that can out­last a life. What makes dis­si­dents tick? And how might we change when we encounter them?

Urgent and inspir­ing, Beckerman’s book shows that dis­si­dence is a human capac­i­ty we can all cul­ti­vate, a refusal to betray one’s inner voice, no mat­ter the cost. In a polar­ized Amer­i­ca and a world slid­ing toward author­i­tar­i­an­ism, we need dis­si­dents — not only the jailed and mar­tyred, but also those of us who face small dai­ly com­pro­mis­es of con­science. How to Be a Dis­si­dent lights the way.