When James Baldwin returned to the United States in 1957 from exile in Paris, he wished to join the growing struggle against 350 years of violent oppression with his feet on the ground, his eyes on the action, and his body in danger. Contrast Baldwin’s decision with that of three Yale professors to abandon the United States at one of its most vulnerable moments. Historian Marci Shore , philosopher Jason Stanley, and historian Timothy Snyder — all prominent scholars of authoritarianism—