How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Radio 4 Book of the Week

Maria Ressa author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Ebury Publishing

Published:17th Nov '22

£20.00

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

This hardback is available in another edition too:

How to Stand Up to a Dictator cover

*BBC RADIO 4 START OF THE WEEK and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR*

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2021

What will you sacrifice for the truth?

Maria Ressa has spent decades speaking truth to power. But her work tracking disinformation networks seeded by her own government, spreading lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate, has landed her in trouble with the most powerful man in the country: President Duterte.

Now, hounded by the state, she has multiple arrest warrants against her name, and a potential 100+ years behind bars to prepare for - while she stands trial for speaking the truth.

How to Stand Up to a Dictator is the story of how democracy dies by a thousand cuts, and how an invisible atom bomb has exploded online that is killing our freedoms. It maps a network of disinformation - a heinous web of cause and effect - that has netted the globe: from Duterte's drug wars, to America's Capitol Hill, to Britain's Brexit, to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare, to Facebook and Silicon Valley, to our own clicks and our own votes.

Told from the frontline of the digital war, this is Maria Ressa's urgent cry for us to wake up and hold the line, before it is too late.

Praise for Maria Ressa:
Winner of the UNESCO Press Freedom Award 2021

'A personal hero of mine ... she's an important warning for the rest of us'
Hillary Clinton

'Maria Ressa is 5ft 2in, but she stands taller than most in her pursuit of the truth'
Amal Clooney

'Maria is a key voice ... she is so incredible in so many ways'
Carole Cadwalladr

Absolutely sublime and transformational. [Maria Ressa] lays out the moral paradigm for our time and the consequences of ignoring it and the thrill and reward of embracing it * Shoshana Zuboff, author of the international bestselling Surveillance Capitalism *
A personal hero of mine ... she's an important warning for the rest of us * Hillary Clinton *
I don't think I've read a more important book this year. * Andrew Marr, LBC *
Maria is a key voice... she is so incredible in so many ways. The world needs to listen to what she has to say * Carole Cadwalladr *
Maria Ressa is five feet two inches, but she stands taller than most in her pursuit of the truth * Amal Clooney *
So how do you stand up to a dictator? One thing is for sure: you cannot do it alone. Ressa needs support from all of us, and she needs it now * Guardian *
Tales of a moral giant... All of these attempts to raise the alarm came to nothing, so it is hardly surprising that Ressa's inspiring book has an impassioned, frustrated and, at times, angry tone. She saw the future and knew how it didn't work for democracy. And nobody except the Nobel committee seemed to be paying attention. For which mercy, much thanks * Observer *
Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa's How to Stand Up to a Dictator makes an unmissable Book of the Week. It is a memoir of a life devoted to truth-telling, an account of her battle to expose the reality behind the Philippines' former president Rodrigo Duterte's so-called war on drugs, and a brilliant dissection of the "virus of lies" generated on social media platforms. * Telegraph *
An inspiration * Zoe Kleinman *
How to Stand Up to a Dictator is confronting, even terrifying - but feels vital... This book lays bare how big tech companies are allowing democracy to be eroded through the dissemination of disinformation, and the devastating effects it can have on a nation...Ressa spends her days on bail awaiting her next court hearing. The rest of us should be watching with bated breath. In the meantime, the least we can do is read this book, learn from it and pass it on to everyone we know. * Anna Bonet, inews.co.uk *
At a time when the world faces a stark choice between authoritarian leaders and those with the courage to stand up to them, Maria Ressa is an indispensable guide in showing us the path from our troubled present to a better future * Irish Times *

ISBN: 9780753559192

Dimensions: 240mm x 162mm x 31mm

Weight: 536g

320 pages