Timothy W. Ryback

Declaration of Independence, and as America heads for midterm elections on the 4th of November, 2026, we thought we would share two enthralling and compelling talks from this year's festival, exploring the state of the American Union under President Trump, which both take a longer, more historical view about the issues confronting the country.

In today's podcast, we join the BBC's In Our Time host, Misha Glenny, talking to historian and Atlantic correspondent Timothy Ryback about his latest bestselling book, 53 Days, How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy, concerning the collapse of the Weimar Republic.

and to Tim Phillips, conflict resolver and founder of the Boston-based NGO Beyond Conflict, about its possible parallels with and for America under Trump.

And in our next podcast, we join veteran U.S. watcher and broadcaster Jim Nocatee as he talks to Republican lawyer Greg Nanziata, former Chief Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judicial Appointments Committee and CEO of the Rule of Law Society, as they explore whether the U.S. still has a government of laws rather than strong men.

I was reading in, in The New York Times book reviews.

They have a book here called 53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy by Timothy Ryback.

Mm-hmm.

And it really, um, talks about how H- Hitler used dem- democratic methods to take over the government-

If people...

I'm, I'm not gonna really judge the, uh... any comparison of, uh, Trump with Hitler.

Hitler was a horrible, horrible man, and, um, but people can look up this book, 53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy by Timothy Ryback.

Thank you for that information, Jimmy.

And We have been discussing this about the question of how it was not inevitable, how there were many points of resistance to Hitler, many obstacles.

And we are about to continue this discussion with Timothy Ryback.

He's the author of a new book, I can't imagine a more relevant book in terms of thinking about history than his new book, 53 Days, How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy.

He's written many books, including Takeover, Hitler's Final Rise to Power, Hitler's Private Library.

and to destroy democracy.

We have with us one of the great world experts on this subject, Timothy Rybak.

He is the author of a brand new book, probably the scariest book you could read going into the midterms.

It's called 53 Days, How Hitler Dismantled the Democracy.

And what's going to go on is, just as people are studying Vichy France and Nazi Germany, and we're going to even discuss this later with another guest...

Timothy Ryback, is why people act the way they do.

And Jake's book, Profiles in Cowardice, is more than the first draft of history.

It's not simply a newspaper story.

My name is Gregg Nunziata, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute, and your host for this weekly conversation about law, liberty, and the threats to both in our country and the world today.

My guest today is Timothy Ryback.

Tim is a renowned historian and the current director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague.

He has also served as deputy secretary general of the Académie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris, my French is terrible, and as the director and vice president of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

Um, it is so polarized, and there's so much of it that how do I distinguish from, you know, what, what, what matters, you know, what is real and, and, and what is not? Um, I-- So I think, um, it's a-- it, it, it's a-- You know, it's not an answer, but it-- you're, you're focusing-- you're pointing to, to a real dilemma.

And in a democracy where it is ruled by the people, and we decide how or who is going to be running the country by placing our vote, but what, you know, what, what are we voting for at the end of the day?

Timothy Ryback, thank you so much for joining us on the Checks and Balances podcast.

The book is Fifty-Three Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy.

And even newspapers at the time were going, what is going on here?

I'm extremely happy to welcome back Professor Timothy Ryback, historian of Nazi Germany and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague.

Today we're going to be talking about his latest book, Gripping Read, I must say, which is called 53 Days How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy.

Professor Ryback, a real pleasure to have you on again.

Great to be back with Smart Cookies.

You ask smart questions and I try to give smart answers anyway.

I'm showing the chaos and the confusion to show that this is not historical inevitability.

It's based on political contingency and ultimately is up to the people in these so-called democracies to go out and cast their vote and make the decision.

We are delighted to have internationally acclaimed historian Timothy Ryback here to discuss his latest book, 53 Days, How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy, the chilling chronicle of how Adolf Hitler overturned a constitutional democracy in less than eight weeks.

Timothy W. Ryback is director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague.

He has written on the legacies of National Socialism for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

His books on Hitler, including Takeover, Hitler's Final Rise to Power, have been translated into more than 20 languages.