If All of the School...
Our Fall 2025 Selection
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Centruy by Timothy Snyder
The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.
On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.
The Fall 2025 selection is available to view here. It is also available online through the UB Library.
About the program
The purpose of the "If All of the School..." program is to generate critical inquiry and discourse about complex contemporary social issues and to encourage creative and innovative thinking among social work students, faculty, and staff. Through the shared experience of reading, viewing, or listening to the same content, the program challenges us to think differently about ourselves, our country, the world community, and the contributions of our profession.
We ask that students view the selected video prior to attending Orientation in order to prepare for small group discussion.
Why Watch?
“Before I came to school for my own graduate education, I had an image of the exciting dialogues that faculty and students could have together about ideas. While graduate school certainly includes such dialogues, it still rarely provides such opportunities outside the structure of a specific class. So this is an opportunity for us to talk together about some important ideas -- both at orientation and perhaps in the months to come. The staff and part-time faculty, some alumni and all the other students in the School will also be invited to read the book with the hope that this will spawn a series of dialogues.”
- Nancy J. Smyth, PhD, LCSW
What Will We Discuss?
At a minimum, we'll be interested in hearing people's overall reactions; however, we will also have some specific discussion questions to facilitate a deeper discussion -- you may suggest a question if you wish.
Where Can I Obtain this Year's Selection?
The Fall 2025 selection is available to view here.