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
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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