Teaching Havel in Kyiv: Lessons From Ukraine for Trump’s America

It was 9 a.m. in Kyiv, and I showed up at class ready to teach Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless,” his celebrated 1978 essay about totalitarian control, but was feeling rough around the edges because I had been in a bomb shelter until 5:30 a.m. that morning. So had my students. This was my first time back in Ukraine for more than 30 years. I had…