[Watch] Jason Stanley on Fascism
Watch Jason Stanley, a leading expert on fascism, as he examines how authoritarian regimes manipulate history and civil liberties. With host Sarah Schwartz.
Legal residents sent to foreign prisons without due process. Students detained after voicing their opinions. Federal judges threatened with impeachment for ruling against government priorities. All this and more prompted Jason Stanley, bestselling author of 'How Fascism Works', to relocate from the United States to Canada earlier this year in protest of the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties.
At this special event, Stanley took the stage in Melbourne and discussed the global crisis of authoritarianism, and how the politics of history is being weaponised to erode critical inquiry, fracture pluralism and lay the groundwork for totalitarianism, even – and most troublingly – in celebrated strongholds of democracy.
Drawing on extensive case studies and philosophical insight, Stanley joined Sarah Schwartz to lift the curtain on the tactics employed time and again by those seeking absolute power – and how the people can safeguard the future of democratic freedom.
Originally presented on Thursday 2 October 2025 by The Wheeler Centre, in partnership with RMIT.