An impassioned manifesto for social reform.
An investigation of the need for forging bonds in activist work.
Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor have been activists for solidarity since they met in 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street movement. Hunt-Hendrix, granddaughter of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, co-founded Solidaire, a network of philanthropists who fund progressive movements, and Way to Win, which focuses on policy and electoral strategy. Taylor co-founded the Debt Collective, a union that organizes debtors to fight for debt cancellation and other reparative social policies. Solidarity, the authors argue persuasively, is essential for confronting deep social, political, and ecological problems. At a time of increasing polarization, “what can enable us to come together despite entrenched social divisions and the immense power of self-interested elites?” Recognizing that feelings of cohesiveness can create exclusionary groups—such as the solidarity shared by white supremacists—the authors posit “transformative solidarity,” which fosters fellowship across differences, stands against divisive forces, and works toward collective action for the common good. The authors trace the concept of solidarity from ancient Rome, where debt was a collective obligation, to modern movements such as Black Lives Matter. They examine the generation of liberal democratic ideals after the French Revolution and the rise of solidarism from the social disruption caused by the Industrial Revolution. Solidarists held that interdependence, “a fact of human life and the natural world,” should be the basis of law and policy. However, solidarity is undermined by a market-driven system that encourages people to see each other as competitors for resources and to spurn solidarity in favor of self-interest. Philanthropy by billionaires functions as a “fig leaf” to cover up injustices, intensifying the difference between givers and receivers. For lasting change, solidarity, the authors assert, requires the cultivation of justice, commitment, courage, humility—and a conviction that we can remake the world.
An impassioned manifesto for social reform.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780593701249
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
For fans only.
The hoodie-and-shorts-clad Pennsylvania senator blends the political and personal, and often not nicely.
Fetterman’s memoir addresses three major themes. The first—and the one he leads with—is depression and mental illness, which, combined with a stroke and heart trouble, brought him to a standstill and led him to contemplate suicide. The second is his rise to national-level politics from a Rust Belt town; as he writes, he’s carved a path as a contentious player with a populist streak and a dislike for elites. There are affecting moments in his personal reminiscences, especially when he writes of the lives of his working-class neighbors in impoverished southwestern Pennsylvania, its once-prosperous Monongahela River Valley “the most heartbreaking drive in the United States.” It’s the third element that’s problematic, and that’s his in-the-trenches account of daily politics. One frequent complaint is the media, as when he writes of one incident, “I am not the first public figure to get fucked by a reporter, and I won’t be the last. What was eye-opening was the window it gave into how people with disabilities navigate a world that doesn’t give a shit.” He reserves special disdain for his Senate race opponent Mehmet Oz, about whom he wonders, “If I had run against any other candidate…would I have lost? He got beaten by a guy recovering from a stroke.” Perhaps so, and Democratic stalwarts will likely be dismayed at his apparent warmish feelings for Donald Trump and dislike of his own party’s “performative protests.” If Fetterman’s book convinces a troubled soul to seek help, it will have done some good, but it’s hard to imagine that it will make much of an impression in the self-help literature. One wonders, meanwhile, at sentiments such as this: “If men are forced to choose between picking their party or keeping their balls, most men are going to choose their balls.”
For fans only.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593799826
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.
Enduring the unthinkable.
This memoir—the first by an Israeli taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023—chronicles the 491 days the author was held in Gaza. Confined to tunnels beneath war-ravaged streets, Sharabi was beaten, humiliated, and underfed. When he was finally released in February, he learned that Hamas had murdered his wife and two daughters. In the face of scarcely imaginable loss, Sharabi has crafted a potent record of his will to survive. The author’s ordeal began when Hamas fighters dragged him from his home, in a kibbutz near Gaza. Alongside others, he was held for months at a time in filthy subterranean spaces. He catalogs sensory assaults with novelistic specificity. Iron shackles grip his ankles. Broken toilets produce an “unbearable stink,” and “tiny white worms” swarm his toothbrush. He gets one meal a day, his “belly caving inward.” Desperate for more food, he stages a fainting episode, using a shaving razor to “slice a deep gash into my eyebrow.” Captors share their sweets while celebrating an Iranian missile attack on Israel. He and other hostages sneak fleeting pleasures, finding and downing an orange soda before a guard can seize it. Several times, Sharabi—51 when he was kidnapped—gives bracing pep talks to younger compatriots. The captives learn to control what they can, trading family stories and “lift[ing] water bottles like dumbbells.” Remarkably, there’s some levity. He and fellow hostages nickname one Hamas guard “the Triangle” because he’s shaped like a SpongeBob SquarePants character. The book’s closing scenes, in which Sharabi tries to console other hostages’ families while learning the worst about his own, are heartbreaking. His captors “are still human beings,” writes Sharabi, bravely modeling the forbearance that our leaders often lack.
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063489790
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper Influence/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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