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Chapter 3 starts with “Wolf’s Word.” Snyder states that he was fortunate as a child, since his family traveled abroad, and he had access to education. On a trip to Costa Rica when he was 14, he heard adults speaking about right of way, using the term to mean an established path. In “Life’s Arc,”  Snyder defines the next type of freedom: mobility. It represents independence, in that with basic needs met and a safe environment, one can choose what to do. For example, limited access to healthcare availability might reduce a person’s ability to change jobs.

“Can You Imagine?” contains several anecdotes about African Americans who served in World War II and afterward then subjected to racism. “Freedom Rides” gives a brief history of the Freedom Riders, people who organized integrated bus rides across the United States to confront racism and segregation. Many were attacked and beaten. “Public Trauma” discusses social theorist Frantz Fanon’s experience in France. Due to his race, his mobility was limited, physically and socially. Snyder reflects that one’s mobility is often dictated by others, and not always by one’s own efforts.

“Three Dimensions” examines how German Jews lost their mobility by being made second-class citizens, while non-Jewish Germans gained greater mobility by taking over the possessions and jobs the Jews lost. “Stalin’s Future” briefly discusses the failings of the USSR, operating under the Marxist principle that abolishing private property would restore the natural order of human relations. This is an example of negative freedom (freedom after removing a barrier) that caused widespread starvation and misery. In “Among Empires,” Snyder states that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were inspired by the mobility created for Americans through violent territorial expansion. “Closed Frontier” examines how, without immunological and technological advantages, empires have great difficulty colonizing new territories. Snyder provides many examples from the 20th century, ending with the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“Social Mobility” examines how Western Europe experienced social mobility after World War II. Public education, and generous healthcare and pension systems, gave people more freedom of choice in their lives. “Middle Class” discusses how the United States thrived for 40 years after World War II for similar reasons (social mobility enabled by social programs enacted after the Great Depression). Unfortunately, starting in the 1980s, social mobility into the middle class became less accessible for many Americans, due to dramatic shifts in public policy.

“Mass Incarceration” examines how prison inmates, denied the right to vote, still count as citizens for purposes of determining states’ representation in Congress and the Electoral College. Many prisoners from urban areas are incarcerated in rural areas, increasing the voting clout of the rural areas, where elected officials are incentivized to build more prisons. “Big Zone” examines racial policies that limited the social mobility of minorities, including redlining (changing housing districts to exclude minorities) and how the Wagner Act (1935) allowed unions to exclude minority workers. “Racial Unfreedom” examines the effects of the United States prison system (the world’s largest). By disproportionately imprisoning Black people, the system encourages the perception that white people are superior. Politicians can exploit this false appearance by claiming to save their supporters from a nonexistent criminal threat.

In “Immobilization Politics,” Snyder starts by discussing how many Americans were tricked into believing that Black people were exploiting the welfare system, a system which likely helped those same Americans’ grandparents enter the middle class. Snyder then describes today’s postimperial immobility: many Americans long for a time when social mobility was achievable, but stagnation and isolation instead lead to addiction and suicide.

In “Russian Guest,” Snyder recounts a 1990 episode during a conference visit by Giorgy Arbatov, a Russian diplomat. Snyder and Arbatov shared an elevator with two large, Black NFL players, and Arbatov unintentionally offended one of them by using the term “boy.” Snyder was able to smooth things over by explaining that Arbatov was foreign. Arbatov himself suffered racial discrimination, being of Jewish descent, while serving in the Soviet Army in World War II. “Convergent Stagnation” starts with an overview of how postimperial immobility contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and then states that Ronald Reagan and his successors created similar stagnation in the United States, ignoring the role social mobility played in helping America win the Cold War. In “Roads and Tracks,” Snyder states that the roads and trains of post-communist Europe are now far superior to those in the United States, allowing for greater physical and social mobility.

In “Sadopopulism,” Snyder uses that term to describe populist politicians who, instead of building infrastructure or solving problems, point to worse problems elsewhere. His prime example is Donald Trump. “Time Warps” describes how people in the United States no longer ask for solutions to their current problems but instead accept that the problems are inevitable. “1 Percent of 1 Percent” describes how successive generations of Americans since World War II have grown up under increasingly undesirable conditions, mostly due to the widening gap in wealth between rich and poor. Snyder points out that a small fraction of the top percent (1 in 10,000) own a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth but pay negligible taxes. “Unspeakable Wealth” furthers this discussion by pointing out that the wealthiest individuals push for practices and policies that are detrimental to the freedom and mobility of the other 99.99 percent.

“Eternity Politics” expands on the idea of the politics of inevitability (a concept Snyder discusses in the Epilogue of his previous book, On Tyranny). The politics of inevitability reduces the possibilities of the future to single concepts, which are supported by “politicians of eternity.” Such politicians want to rule forever and tell their followers that present times are the best they will ever be, often referencing fabricated past glories (Donald Trump’s formerly “great” America, or Putin’s claims that Ukraine was always part of Russia). “Ecological War” describes how politicians of inevitability and eternity both undermine the science behind impending threats (such as climate change) and then use the fear of catastrophe to advance their agendas and turn people against one another. To avoid such catastrophe, Snyder advises that science and history must be valued to steer toward a better future. “Responsibility Politics” emphasizes the need to avoid politics of inevitability. Freedom and mobility depend on the belief that there are choices in the future. By better understanding past events and patterns, people can choose a better way forward.

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