Albright will discuss her new book, Fascism: A Warning, in conversation Mark Suzman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

All tickets (except Student and complimentary tickets) include a copy of Fascism: A Warning.

There is no reception and no book-signing at this event.

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption.

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. The United States, which historically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates division and heaps scorn on democratic institutions. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of the right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times. Written by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past.

Madeleine Albright is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Madam Secretary, The Mighty and the Almighty, Memo to the President, and Read My Pins. She was U.S. secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. Her distinguished career of public service includes positions in the National Security Council, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and on Capitol Hill. She is a resident of Washington, D.C., and Virginia. She will discuss her new book with Mark Suzman who is Chief Strategy Officer and President in Global Policy and Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Selected Works

Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box (2009)
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War (2012)
Madam Secretary: A Memoir (2013)
Fascism: A Warning (April 2018)

Mark Suzman

As Chief Strategy Officer, Mark Suzman leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s efforts to build strategic relationships with governments, private philanthropists, and other key partners to increase awareness, action, and resources devoted to foundation programs in both the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, he oversees the foundation’s regional offices and strategic presence in Europe, Africa, and China, as well as grant portfolios supporting cross-cutting policy research, advocacy, communications, and select country-level delivery efforts. Originally from South Africa, Mark holds a doctorate in International Relations from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Harvard University.