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\u201cAmericans and Europeans were guided through the new century by a tale about \u2018the end of history,\u2019 by what I will call the politics of inevitability, a sense that the future is just more of the present, that the laws of progress are known, that there are no alternatives, and therefore nothing really to be done,\u201d writes the Yale historian Timothy Snyder in his 2018 book, \u201cThe Road to Unfreedom.\u201d\n\nThe central thesis of \u201cThe Road to Unfreedom\u201d is that different understandings of the past, its myths, histories and memories create radically different politics. Snyder wrote the book as a way of understanding Vladimir Putin\u2019s 2014 invasion of Crimea and the West\u2019s response, but its argument has become only more salient in recent weeks. You can\u2019t understand Putin\u2019s recent invasion of Ukraine without understanding his metaphysical attachment to the era of empire, his mythological telling of Russian-Ukrainian history, and his semi-mystical construction of what constitutes the Russian nation.\n\nBut Snyder\u2019s more radical argument is that the West is also operating under its own mythological understanding of time \u2014 one that is so deeply ingrained in our collective psyche that it masquerades as common sense. And that understanding the influence of the \u201cpolitics of inevitability\u201d is essential to make sense of everything from the West\u2019s misreading of Putin\u2019s motivations to the internal fracturing of the European Union to the decline of liberal democracy across the globe.\n\nSo that\u2019s where we start: with the central myths at the heart of the modern Western project \u2014 and the blind spots they have created. But Snyder is also a renowned historian of European great-power conflict who has written six books entirely or partly about Ukraine. So we also discuss the chasm between the radicalness of European integration and the tedium of European governance, why Snyder thinks Putin\u2019s invasion is fundamentally the product of a Russian identity crisis, Ukraine\u2019s unique history as a battleground for a great-power war, how Ukrainian identity transcends ethnicity and language, why Western leaders and analysts consistently fail to decipher Putin\u2019s intentions, the huge difference between a Russian nation premised on myth and a Ukrainian nation forged by collective action, how Ukrainian resistance could inspire a Western vision for the future and more.\n\nMentioned:\n\nBloodlands by Timothy Snyder\n\n\u201cOn the History Unity of Russians and Ukrainians\u201d by Vladimir Putin\n\nBook recommendations:\n\nNothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev\n\nThe Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt\n\nThe Gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.