An empowering motivational tool for readers interested in proactive politics.
How to institute social change through focused advocacy.
A “social worker by profession,” Sheridan is more popularly known as a “white hat lobbyist” who has fought the good fight on the side of public interest legislation for more than three decades. Here, he combines his sharp intellect, political acumen, and impressive record of successful measures into a sage guide on how social change occurs. While the author believes this moment is “one of the darkest in recent American history,” his unflagging optimism and encouragement are palpable throughout the book. Hoping for better days is simply not enough; what is required is organized, collective participation to change restrictive legislation for the better. With swift prose and a bold tone, Sheridan explains the importance of and the processes through which political action can have the most profound, lasting effects. The author interweaves stories from his distinguished career as a public interest lobbyist, beginning with his early collaborative success alongside Bono (and, surprisingly, Orrin Hatch) in passing the Ryan White Act, making AIDS legislation a priority. Sheridan also championed the Americans with Disabilities Act, lobbied on behalf of human trafficking victims to increase federal funding and awareness, and backed a global youth protection initiative called Save the Children, which required bolstering after Hurricane Katrina. All of these achievements serve as learning points for readers interested in contributing to the greater good. Sheridan’s theory for social justice is based on the foundation of the “3 Ps”—policy, politics, and press—which he claims is the key formula for success in securing progressive change. Overall, the author’s message that even small action can have a collective impact is compelling, and the challenge is for people to “step up, lean in, push harder, and take action” to make American government work better for the people.
An empowering motivational tool for readers interested in proactive politics.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5387-0016-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2019
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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