One of our most incisive observers of democracy, Masha Gessen is the author of 11 books, including the National Book Award-winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.Gessen examines how autocracies “other” vulnerable groups, tracing this tactic in Putin’s Russia and its personal consequences, which caused Gessen to flee to the U.S. a decade ago.Today, Gessen draws a clear throughline to similar currents here.As contemporary autocrats promise a return to an imaginary, safer past, Gessen argues that the antidote to the politics of the past is an inspiring politics of the future.What might that future be, and can we see its early outlines if we look closely?Books will be available for purchase and signing, courtesy of Chaucer’s Books