The Fight Back

Nobel Prize winner, New York Times bestselling author Maria Ressa provides readers with a powerful, practical, and positive guide to resisting authoritarianism and fighting to save democracy, for fans of Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny (over 20k TCM).

Take Action to Save Democracy!

The Fight Back is 40,000 words of actionable guidance for citizens everywhere who refuse to let democracy collapse. It is a book about agency—and what you can do now. More than anything, it's a book about courage—at a time of creative destruction, it's time to create the world we want.

We now face three convergent crises. The crisis of truth: tech platforms and AI have destroyed our information ecosystem, making shared reality impossible. The crisis of order: the United States—the nation that built the post-war international system—is now dismantling it, launching illegal military operations, killing its own citizens in the streets, arresting journalists who document it. The crisis of accountability: institutions have been captured, law weaponized, and those with power answer to no one.

Each chapter in each section will open with a visceral first-person scenario and closes with 10 specific steps everyone can take. The book culminates in 100 actions distilled into a detachable 10-point plan for immediate implementation.