Praise for 53 Days : A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2026 "Historian Timothy W. Ryback shows how the Nazis used democratic means to destroy German democracy . To a remarkable degree, Ryback''s brisk narrative titrates the exact proportion of detail and context to enliven these moments and never dawdles over any single standoff; the book, which is a short 244 pages, really moves . He summons and summarizes details from the Nazi past that unmistakably rhyme with the present, leaving it to his discerning readers to make the connection."-- The New York Times "In 53 Days , his brilliantly absorbing book about Hitler''s early weeks as chancellor, Timothy W. Ryback minutely examines his dismantlement of Weimar."-- The National Interest "A straightforward narrative of the period . Ryback''s 53 Days makes no reference to contemporary politics.

And yet certain echoes of the 1930s resonate so loudly that it is impossible not to hear them."-- The Atlantic "In meticulous and telling detail, Ryback takes the reader through Hitler''s methods . It is foolish not to study and learn from the ways a person with the soul of a dictator can fracture a democracy. 53 Days is the essential blueprint in understanding how that can happen."-- Air Mail "Essential reading for WWII history buffs . and anyone interested in the contemporary parallels."-- The Media Tourist "Profoundly dizzying . Chilling .

53 Days teaches us, forcefully, that democracy is never anything we can take for granted."-- Washington Monthly "Ryback''s narrative possesses an eerie verisimilitude in parallel with developments in the 21st century U.S. and reads like a warning of how democracy can provide the means for its own destruction . 53 Days is a breathless, cogent, and timely analysis of Hitler''s ascent to dictator."-- Shelf Awareness "Incisive . a trenchant depiction of democracy as most vulnerable when its stewards are insufficiently committed."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Step by step, the book recounts the process by which Hitler used the powers of his office to destroy German democracy.

Ryback deftly manages what could have been an unwieldy narrative, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about the book''s relevance to current events."-- Booklist (starred review) "A fluid account . A sobering study of how democracies can become dictatorships overnight."-- Kirkus Reviews "This book offers a powerfully written, blow-by-blow account of how German democracy was dismantled from within. It is a chilling reminder of democracy''s fragility--and how easily we can lose it at the hands of our elected leaders."-- Steven Levitsky, New York Times bestselling coauthor of How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority "Timothy Ryback''s 53 Days is an utterly gripping and suspenseful account of how elected leaders can make use of a democracy to destroy a democracy. The vivid, eyewitness observations here are chilling: they reveal how astonished people can continue to be at their country''s authoritarian take-over, even as they try, with increasing desperation, to sound the alarm about it."-- Margaret Talbot, staff writer, The New Yorker "The speed with which Hitler dismantled the structures of German democracy remains an astonishing, terrifying and instructive tale.

Timothy Ryback''s riveting account, at once careful and brisk, dramatically reminds today''s friends of democracy how fragile self rule can become--and why defending it should be the first priority of all who believe in freedom, equality, and justice."-- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart "The definitive anatomy of democratic collapse and a timely warning. Having watched Viktor Orbán methodically use the machinery of law to hollow out the rule of law in Hungary, I found Ryback''s account viscerally familiar. 53 Days proves that our democracies are most endangered when constitutions, courts, and institutions are turned against the very freedoms they were designed to protect."-- David Koranyi, President of Action for Democracy and former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary Praise for Takeover : "Timothy W.

Ryback''s choice to make his new book, Takeover . a specific chronicle of a single year, 1932, seems a wise, even an inspired one. Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election . Democracy doesn''t die in darkness. It dies in bright midafternoon light."-- Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker "If you ever thought that history is only moved by big, sweeping forces, whether of economics or creed or nature itself, think again. In this riveting, intimate account of the final months in Hitler''s rise to power, Tim Ryback makes it plain that simple luck, bald ambition and fallible human hearts can be drivers of earth-changing events."-- Max Rodenbeck, Berlin bureau chief, The Economist "Ryback admirably capture[s] the shifting moods, political stances, and risk-taking as well as the speculations, uncertainties, and confusion of the political figures who did not know how the story he narrates would end .

Ryback''s narrative and his portraits of major figures are riveting."-- New York Review of Books "How does a flawed republic become something entirely different? We know how the Nazi regime ended, but think too little about how it began. This admirable account shows us how fragile and avoidable were those beginnings, and helps us to reflect upon our own predicaments."-- Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny "An expert account of the dizzying months when Hitler solidified his power in Germany. A masterfully narrated story of how a democracy committed suicide, with lessons for today."-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "[A] riveting blow-by-blow account of the six months leading up to Adolf Hitler''s January 1933 appointment as Germany''s chancellor . A dire and remarkably astute depiction of how fickle and contingent the forces of history can be."-- Publisher''s Weekly , starred review "That history is not as inevitable as most might believe forms an unsettling undertone throughout the book .

Takeover is startlingly relevant history, well-wrought and splendidly researched, that reveals how democracies can die democratically."-- Shelf Awareness.