It’s easy to think that democracy just exists. Once it’s in place, it stays. We take it for granted. But as I read Erasing History, one unsettling truth kept resurfacing: democracy only survives if people fight for it. And when those in power seek more control, the first thing they go after is history.

In Erasing History, Jason Stanley explores how governments manipulate the past to shape the future. They erase uncomfortable truths, ban certain books from schools, and replace history with myths that justify their power. When people don’t know what really happened, they can’t recognize when history is repeating itself. And that’s exactly the point.

While this book focuses largely on what happened in the U.S., its lessons are universal. The same tactics, like silencing opposition, rewriting history, fueling division, are visible in places like Russia, China, India, Hungary, Turkey, and many other countries. No matter where you live, you’ve likely seen traces of it, too. As Timothy Snyder wrote in On Tyranny, “No country is going to find a solution by itself.” Learning from what happens elsewhere is just as important as paying attention to what’s unfolding at home.

Erasing History challenges us to do just that. It urges us to question the stories we’re told, to examine how history is shaped, and to stay alert to the ways democracy can be weakened. Sometimes gradually, sometimes all at once. Because the moment we stop paying attention is the moment we risk losing it.

Summary

How Authoritarian Regimes Manipulate History to Maintain Power

Authoritarian regimes see history as a threat. The past holds stories of resistance, change, alternative ways of governing, and narratives that challenge their grip on power. To maintain control, these regimes erase or distort history, shaping it into something that justifies their rule.

In contrast, democracy thrives on a shared reality shaped by multiple perspectives. A democratic society encourages citizens to see one another as equal contributors to an evolving national story. History, in this context, is not a fixed myth but a dynamic, ever-changing reflection of new ideas, evidence, and perspectives. It is a tool for critical thinking rather than blind allegiance.

One of the most effective ways for authoritarians to control history is through education. By purging certain narratives from school curricula, or even banning them from being discussed at home, they attempt to reshape collective memory. Yet, they cannot erase lived experiences. The scars of past events remain, passed down through generations, written into family histories and cultural memory.

Fascism, a particularly extreme form of authoritarianism, takes this manipulation even further. It seeks to divide populations into “us” and “them,” using ethnic, racial, or religious differences to fuel division.

Of course, every education system involves some level of erasure. No curriculum can cover everything. But in authoritarian regimes, this erasure serves a specific purpose: to prevent citizens from questioning the status quo. By omitting stories of past uprisings and movements that challenged power, these regimes create the illusion that resistance has never existed. And never could.

How Fascists Manipulate Education and History

For fascists, politics is defined by opposition. There must always be an enemy. Their regimes are built around a charismatic leader, and the entire social and political structure revolves around loyalty to that figure. Fascist ideology thrives on hierarchy, which makes egalitarianism a direct threat. If everyone is seen as equal, the entire system of power crumbles.

A core feature of fascist politics is the fear that marginalized groups will gain equal status. This fear is deliberately stoked and weaponized. To maintain dominance, fascist regimes reshape education systems to reinforce existing hierarchies, presenting them as the natural outcome of history rather than the result of deliberate, oppressive choices. This often takes the form of banning certain books, authors, and academic concepts that challenge the ruling ideology.

When fascists rewrite history, they often claim they are merely correcting biased interpretations rather than erasing facts. In reality, their goal is to remove any narrative that contradicts their political aims. Fascist movements see education as a battleground, one where they can erase inconvenient truths and replace them with mythic, state-approved versions of reality. This isn’t limited to schools; broader restrictions on knowledge follow, ensuring that public discourse remains controlled.

A particularly insidious strategy of modern fascist propaganda is targeting the trans community, accusing it of promoting an ill-defined “gender ideology.” These attacks serve as a rallying point for those seeking to impose rigid social hierarchies and reinforce traditional power structures.

Throughout history, authoritarians have recognized that education shapes political culture. If they want to reshape a society, they start by seizing control of what people learn. But history also shows that education is the foundation of resistance. Nearly every movement toward greater equality began with educators. This is precisely why fascists attack teachers. They fear what an informed and critically thinking population might do.

For those who want to push back against this erasure of non-dominant perspectives, the first step is to understand what fascists fear most: education that empowers people to question authority. Knowledge remains one of the most powerful tools against oppression.

How Education Shapes Ideology

Fascist education revolves around five key themes:

1. National greatness: The nation is portrayed as uniquely powerful, exceptional, and superior to all others.
2. National purity: A myth of racial, ethnic, or cultural homogeneity is promoted, erasing the contributions of minority groups.
3. National innocence: Historical wrongdoings, including war crimes or oppression, are denied or reframed as necessary sacrifices.
4. Strict gender roles: Women are confined to traditional roles, while LGBTQ+ identities are demonized or erased.
5. Vilification of the left: Political opponents, especially labor movements and progressive activists, are cast as enemies of the state.

To maintain this rigid narrative, fascist regimes actively suppress any contradictory evidence. They erase scholarly research that exposes flaws in national myths, silence discussions of historical injustices, and reject ideas that suggest diversity or gender equality might benefit society. In this framework, history lessons must glorify the dominant group, and any coverage of social movements, especially those advocating for workers’ rights, is treated as subversive.

At its core, fascism serves to justify state violence. It targets political opponents, labor unions, and marginalized communities, treating them as threats that must be eliminated. Women’s rights are rolled back, forcing them into domestic roles. LGBTQ+ identities are criminalized, their existence framed as unnatural or immoral. Immigrants, too, become scapegoats, subjected to inhumane treatment under the guise of national security.

Historians of fascism note that this ideology doesn’t rise in isolation. It requires a material crisis to take root. A sharp economic downturn, a humiliating military defeat, or even the loss of an election can create the conditions for its ascent.

There is a continuum between nationalist supremacy and full-fledged fascism. When a country’s education system portrays its history as unblemished and its people as inherently superior, it paves the way for authoritarianism. A nation that believes itself beyond criticism is far more vulnerable to the violent ideologies that follow.

How Fascists Undermine Public Schools to Weaken Democracy

Fascist education is not about teaching. It’s about controlling what can and cannot be learned. By systematically erasing diverse perspectives from history and current events, it narrows the scope of knowledge until only a single, state-approved narrative remains. This version of history isn’t neutral; it’s designed to justify and sustain a rigid hierarchy, reinforcing the belief that some groups deserve power while others do not.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this control is by attacking public education itself. Public schools are a cornerstone of democracy, ensuring that all citizens, regardless of background, have access to knowledge and critical thinking skills. It’s no surprise, then, that those opposed to democracy, including fascists and their ideological allies on the far right, seek to dismantle public education entirely. By undermining schools, they weaken democratic participation at its foundation.

There are two main strategies authoritarian movements use to control education:

1. Fascist Education: Training for Mobilization Fascist education is not passive. It actively prepares citizens for conflict. Like propaganda, it instills a sense of grievance, resentment, and righteous anger. The goal is to convince people that they must defend their leader, ethnic group, or religion against fabricated threats. It primes them to accept and even commit violence in the name of protecting their nation.
2. Anti-Education: Training for Apathy While fascist education fuels action, anti-education does the opposite. It fosters passivity and division. This approach doesn’t just erase history; it ensures that citizens are so disconnected from each other that they cannot unite to challenge authority. By stripping education of meaningful content and fracturing people into isolated groups, anti-education leaves the public disengaged. Without a shared understanding of history or civic responsibility, the population becomes apathetic, leaving power in the hands of autocrats, plutocrats, or theocrats.

Both strategies serve the same purpose: weakening democracy by controlling how (or whether) people engage with the world. A society without a strong, inclusive education system is far easier to manipulate. The less people know, the less likely they are to resist.

Democracy is an ideal. It is an idea in which every citizen has political equality rooted in the recognition of all people’s full humanity. And realizing the ideal of political equality is impossible without an understanding of who has been denied it and why.

Jason F. Stanley, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

A Democratic Act of Resistance

Authoritarian governments understand the power of history. They know that reclaiming the past, like uncovering its complexities and contradictions, can strengthen democracy and challenge their control. That’s why they work so hard to rewrite it.

A defining feature of authoritarianism is the effort to control historical narratives. When scholars uncover difficult truths about a nation’s past, they don’t just reveal historical injustices; they also expose the deliberate attempts to conceal them. This makes critical scholarship a direct threat to authoritarian movements, which depend on sanitized, mythic versions of history to justify their power.

But history is not just an academic concern. It is a foundation for civic compassion. A democracy cannot function without a shared understanding of reality, including an honest reckoning with its past. When citizens recognize the full scope of their nation’s history, including its failures. They are better equipped to build a more just society.

Without this understanding, power defaults to those who benefit from hierarchy. The absence of historical knowledge makes it easier for autocrats and demagogues to manipulate the public, replacing civic engagement with blind allegiance.

Reclaiming history is not just about setting the record straight but it’s about protecting democracy itself.

Knowledge, Protest, and the Fight Against Myths

Living in a democracy means being open to change, even replacing long-held traditions with new ones. Education in a democratic society is more than just acquiring knowledge; it’s an exercise in agency, a practice in self-rule. And part of self-rule is refusing to be governed by myths of the past.

Authoritarianism, by contrast, thrives on inequality and the myths that sustain it. Monarchies once justified their power through the myth of divine selection. Dictatorships survive on the idea that a single leader embodies the nation. Fascism, in turn, creates an outgroup: people deemed lesser, denied full rights, and treated as second-class citizens. Schools and universities, through critical inquiry, expose these myths, which is why authoritarian regimes always move to suppress them first. The moment attacks on education intensify, it’s a clear warning sign that democracy is under threat.

It’s easy to feel disconnected from higher education, especially as tuition costs soar while public funding dwindles, almost as if designed to discourage access. But restricting knowledge limits the ability to act. If people don’t learn about systemic issues like the racial wealth gap or human-caused climate change, they cannot fight to change them. Ignorance, in this way, becomes a tool of control.

Yet authoritarianism cannot escape reality forever. Throughout history, social protest movements have been the force that compels those in power to confront uncomfortable truths. To take part in these movements is to exercise democracy; to suppress them is to embrace authoritarianism. The cycle of resistance and repression has always existed, but new technologies, like artificial intelligence, are reshaping its form. AI-generated deepfakes and disinformation are already distorting elections, creating an environment where truth itself is under siege.

The survival of democracy depends on the ability to distinguish fact from fiction. This is why authoritarian regimes relentlessly target two key groups: teachers and investigative journalists. Both serve as the last line of defense against the collapse of the information space needed for democracy to function. Protecting them means protecting the very foundation of a free society.

My Favorite Bits

Without a common understanding of reality, and a common sense of history, social and economic equality are impossible.

Jason F. Stanley, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

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Author: Jason F. Stanley

Publication date: 1 January 2024

Number of pages: 256 pages

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