An uplifting and useful book of activism.
Two activists offer a comprehensive guide to regaining ownership of American civic life in an era of minoritarian rule.
Early on, Sage, co-founder and chief brand officer of Betches Media, and Amick, founder of For Facts Sake, advocate for “civic engagement [as] a form of self-care,” especially for individuals and communities struggling with what have become major ills for American society and politics in the 21st century: “individualism, socioeconomic stratification, and isolation.” The advent of the internet and especially social media has not only fostered siloed communities of like-minded people and discouraged in-person interactions; it has also cultivated optimal conditions for the rise of oligarchs who have allowed corporate exploitation of the masses and who are themselves beholden to corporate interests through such avenues as dark money political campaign donations. The authors argue that conscious civic action is the way forward through all the helplessness and hopelessness that characterize our present political landscape. Toward that goal, the authors provide a variety of resources, including a personality quiz readers can use to determine whether their qualities make them leaders, givers, connectors, or creators; reflection exercises on civic interests; rules for political action; and a mini-tutorial on the structure of American government. In a “republic that elects its representatives democratically,” citizens must actively monitor the issues they care about and the officials who hold office while networking with each other to fight minoritarianism and the isolating hopelessness it brings. The voices in this book, including Betches social media followers, in addition to the how-to format, suggest a primarily young target audience. Nonetheless, the authors’ insights will undoubtedly interest anyone who seeks to revitalize the civic consciousness and activity of what they call the “Exhausteds…a mix of traditional and passive liberals, moderates, and those who are politically disengaged.”
An uplifting and useful book of activism.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668053485
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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