United to Preserve Democracy

Historian Benjamin Carter Hett and author of "The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic," is a leading expert on fascism, the alarmingly rapid decline of German democracy, and Hitler's rise to power. In this video, he discusses the future of American Democracy and the lessons we can learn from history. Join us for an insightful conversation on democracy, the rule of law, and the future of America! This event, hosted by United to Preserve Democracy and the Rule of Law, features a discussion between Benjamin Carter Hett and democracyFIRST Executive Director, Jordan Wood. 🔍 What You’ll Learn: ✅ The biggest threats to democracy in the U.S. and globally ✅ How history helps us understand modern democratic decline ✅ What Americans can do to protect democracy and the rule of law

Richard Primus works with constitutional law on the state level as well as the federal level. He has helped state governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, His writing has appeared in many leading law reviews as well as in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Politico, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs. Opinions of the justices of the US Supreme Court have cited his scholarship.

The United to Preserve to Democracy and the Rule of Law speaker series event is a conversation with Harvard Professor Daniel Ziblatt and former Pennsylvania Congressman Conor Lamb. The event is co-sponsored by DemocracyFIRST and was recorded in Harrisburg, PA. Daniel Ziblatt is a historian, expert on democracy, and the author of four books, including How Democracies Die (2018), co-authored with Steven Levitsky, a New York Times best-seller and described by The Economist magazine as “the most important book of the Trump era.” In 2023, he published Tyranny of the Minority, also with Steve Levitsky. The book is an analysis of American democracy in comparative perspective, also a New York Times bestseller.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, propaganda, and the threats these present to democracies around the world. Her most recent book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, looks at how illiberal leaders use propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo, and how they can be defeated. She writes for CNN, The Economist, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She has appeared in many documentaries about dictators and threats to democracy, such as Netflix’s How To Become a Tyrant and PBS’s The Dictators’ Playbook.

Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute.