Photograph Source: p. klashorst – CC BY 2.0

Authoritarian leaders typically attempt a radical reshaping of civic life. Every area of life—from culture and the arts to education and science—becomes subordinated to the preferences of the leader. Hitler was unusually successful, reordering every aspect of German society and gradually winning the acceptance of the German people. Stalin created an atmosphere of terror and fear, and more were killed in his purges in Russia than were killed at the hands of the Gestapo and Nazis in Germany. Trump’s villainy and retributions are designed to intimidate political opponents, particularly liberals and progressives in the states that voted against him in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

These three authoritarians engaged in acts of historical revisionism, which are designed to alter presumed historical facts and rewrite existing historiography. In 1933, Stalin restored history to a prominent place in the academic curriculum, giving prominence to........

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