Political activism / Political engagement Books

Book Synopsis"Grassroots organizing is our best hope. If you''re serious about making change from the bottom up, read Stand Up! and pass it on."--Congressman Keith EllisonEach of us faces a moment of truth--at a time of crisis, do we stand up and speak out or retreat into our private lives? This book is for those frustrated by what they see happening in the world but not sure what they can do about it.Veteran organizer Gordon Whitman shows that we have the power we need to create a racially and economically just society. But it won''t happen if we stay on the sidelines sharing social media posts and signing online petitions. We win only if we''re willing to join other people in the kind of face-to-face organizing that has powered every successful social movement in history. Whitman describes five types of conversations that enable people to build organizations that can solve local problems and confront the greatest challenges facing our country--from gun violence to climate change. The book is a road map for standing up to the bullies who''ve hijacked our democracy and divided us against each other.Find your voice, make it heard, create lasting change, and live your purpose in the world!

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Book SynopsisHow do peak oil, climate change, and the limits of growth affect abortion rights, income equality, and civil liberty? In this impassioned treatise, author and activist Alexis Zeigler reveals the hidden connections between ecology, economics, politics, and social justice—and shows us how to use these connections to effect real, long-lasting change.Most activist movements, says Zeigler, suffer from a kind of tunnel vision in which the true causes and resulting side effects of the desired change are left unexamined—rendering the movements shortsighted and unaware of their own long-term fallout. We cannot effectively address our problems in isolation or with ecological blinders on. Instead we must integrate our activism and ensure that all strategies and actions take into account the historically demonstrated fact that a society’s environmental resources ultimately define its level of freedom, fairness, and financial equity.Packed with surprising facts and eye-opening arguments, Integrated Activism is a must-read not only for every serious activist, but also for anyone looking for a solid, creditable philosophy and approach to building a fairer, freer, more sustainable future.

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Book SynopsisA powerful first-person account of Ensaf Haidar’s life wither her husband, Saudi Arabian social activist Raif Badawi, and her worldwide campaign to free him from imprisonment   Ensaf Haidar's unforgettable account of her marriage to imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi tells the story of the survival of their love against all odds, and of her courageous fight for her husband’s freedom.When Ensaf and Raif married in 2002 they shed tears of joy; they had overcome the resistance of her family and the rigid conventions of Saudi Arabian culture, and their battle to be together was finally won. But an even greater challenge lay ahead. After the romance of their clandestine courtship, the triumph of their wedding day, and the ups and downs of married life, Ensaf discovers that Raif is becoming active in the liberal movement. Their partnership grows stronger as Raif works tirelessly, daring to question the social order of Saudi Arabia — until his activities attract the attention of the religious police. With Raif under increasing surveillance, Ensaf reluctantly accepts exile as the only way to protect their three young children, hoping that Raif will soon join them.But Raif's arrest and subsequent sentence — to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes — change everything. Ensaf must take up the fight for her husband’s life, galvanizing global support and campaigning for his freedom — and their right to be reunited as a family again. This profoundly moving memoir is both a love story and an inspiring account of the making of not one but two heroic human rights activists.

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Book SynopsisMatt Ball and Bruce Friedrich take the plight of the world''s animals seriously and have dedicated their lives to ending their suffering. THE ANIMAL ACTIVIST''S HANDBOOK argues that meaning in life is to be found, quite simply, in turning away from the futile pursuit of "more" and focusing instead on leaving the planet a better place than you found it. The critical component of creating a better world for all is thoughtful, deliberate and dedicated activism that takes suffering seriously. The authors build a ground-up case for reasoned, impassioned and joyous activism that makes the most difference possible and suggest a variety of ways to live a meaningful life through effective and efficient advocacy.

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Book SynopsisTogether for the first time: two masterworks on the undercurrents of the American mind by one of our greatest historiansRichard Hofstadter''s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life and The Paranoid Style in American Politics are two essential works that lay bare the worrying trends of irrationalism, demagoguery, destructive populism, and conspiratorial thinking that have long influenced American politics and culture. Whether underground or--as in our present moment--out in the open, these currents of resentment, suspicion, and conspiratorial delusion received their authoritative treatment from Hofstadter, among the greatest of twentieth-century American historians, at a time when many public intellectuals and scholars did not take them seriously enough. These two masterworks are joined here by Sean Wilentz''s selection of Hofstadter''s most trenchant uncollected writings of the postwar period: discussions of the Constitution''s framers, the personality and legacy of FDR, higher education and its discontents, the relationship of fundamentalism to right-wing politics, and the advent of the modern conservative movement.

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Book Synopsis “Regenerative agriculture is going to be a key phrase in the decades ahead―and this book will get you in on the ground floor, so to speak. Not much could be more important!”―Bill McKibben, author of Falter Wondering what you can do to help address the global climate crisis? Joining the Grassroots Rising ‘Regeneration Revolution’ might be the best first step... Grassroots Rising is a passionate call to action for the global body politic; providing practical solutions for how to survive - and thrive - in catastrophic times. Author Ronnie Cummins educates and inspires citizens worldwide to organise and become active participants in preventing ecological collapse. This book offers a blueprint for building a ‘Regeneration Movement’ based on consumer activism, farmer innovation, political change, and regenerative finance, embodied most recently by the proposed Green New Deal in the US. Using regenerative agriculture practices that restore our agricultural and grazing lands, we can sequester massive amounts of carbon back into the soil. Coupled with an aggressive transition toward renewable energy sources, Cummins argues that we have the power to not only mitigate and slow down climate change, but actually reverse global warming. Grassroots Rising shows us that the solution lies right beneath our feet - and at the end of our forks - through the transformation of food systems around the world.Trade Review“The world is finally waking up to the ecological and climate emergency and the urgent need to realign the economy with the laws of ecology. In Grassroots Rising, tireless activist Ronnie Cummins outlines how we can address the multiple crises of our time by making a transition from industrial agriculture and food systems to a regenerative agriculture that recycles carbon and nitrogen in forests, grasslands, and farms; reverses climate change; creates healthy soils; and halts species extinction and the erosion of biodiversity. This is a book that should be in the hands of every activist working on food and farming, climate change, and the Green New Deal.”—Vandana Shiva, scientist, environmentalist, social activist; author of Earth Democracy, Soil Not Oil, and Stolen Harvest“Regenerative agriculture is going to be a key phrase in the decades ahead—and this book will get you in on the ground floor, so to speak. Not much could be more important!”—Bill McKibben, author of Falter“Grassroots Rising is one of the most important books you will ever read. It shows the existential environmental and health disasters caused by the toxic and degenerative practices of the poison cartels, Big Agriculture, the fossil fuel industries, predator tycoons, and the money manipulators. Most importantly, though, it is a book with good news! It outlines a logical and very achievable pathway for how we can shift from degeneration to regeneration and make this a healthy, fair, prosperous, diverse, democratic, and environmentally robust world for all of us.”—André Leu, former president, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM); author of The Myth of Safe Pesticides“Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy food, healthy people. My friend and fellow activist Ronnie Cummins makes a strong case for how organic and regenerative food, farming, and land use can lead us to a healthier and happier world with a stable climate.”—Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder, Mercola.com“Grassroots Rising is not only a rousing call to action, but a book that also demystifies the confusing rhetoric about carbon that stops many of us from taking action. Ronnie Cummins, with clear and uncomplicated examples, puts the magnifying glass on the Climate Chaos issue, how it’s connected to farming and land use, and shows us exactly what needs to be done to save life on the planet within the next ten years. If you have been confused or depressed about the future, read this book. It’s time to regenerate.”—Zen Honeycutt, Moms Across America“The future doesn’t have to be gloomy. In this upbeat call to action, Ronnie Cummins, longtime campaigner for healthy food and land, guides us on a hopeful and pragmatic journey into the crucial upcoming decade. A Regenerative Economy is not pie-in-the-sky; it can be done. We have all the tools we need. And thanks to leaders such as Ronnie, we know what to do. This book is a must-read!”—Courtney White, author of Grass, Soil, Hope and Two Percent Solutions for the PlanetTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Rules for Regenerators 2. Regeneration: The Big Picture 3. Regeneration Driver #1: Grassroots Awareness, Political Mobilization, and Marketplace Demand 4. Regeneration Driver #2: Carbon Farming, Reforestation, and Ecosystem Restoration 5. Regeneration Driver #3: Politics and Public Policy 6. Regeneration Driver #4: Commerce and Investment 7. The Global Road to Regeneration 8. Roadmap to Regeneration in the U.S., 2020-2030 Resources Notes Index

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Book SynopsisLes Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X—all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures “from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.” In tracing Malcolm X’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl’s death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm’s exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary. With a biographer’s unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations—from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder “Fard Muhammad,” who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz’s 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X’s murder at the Audubon Ballroom. Introduced by Payne’s daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father’s death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.Trade Review"The definitive biography of Malcolm X.... A book that contextualizes race in America prior to Malcolm's birth, takes an in-depth, nuanced, unflinching look at Malcolm's life, and then explores his death and its aftermath, all backed by 28 years of research.... An incredibly complete picture of Malcolm's life. More than a biography of a man, this is a narrative about a man that constantly places him in the contexts of his country, his family, and his inner world.... Payne uses historical events to offer readers a clear, unwavering look at the state of the nation.... The quality of the writing is superb and the book contains a wealth of gems that make the narrative unforgettable.... Les Payne was an outstanding researcher, and so is Tamara Payne, who worked to see this book finished after Les Payne's death. Malcolm X is still a powerful, influential figure, and getting this definitive biography, which sometimes corrects the historical record (and even corrects some dates and facts on Malcolm's autobiography) feels necessary and timely given today's racial unrest. In fact, this biography isn't just important; it should be required reading." -- Gabino Iglesias - NPR"Malcolm’s presence is beautifully rendered...Nobody has written a more poetic account...Payne also shows how enthralling it was to watch Malcolm improvise and argue. In this scene and others, we are exposed to Malcolm’s teachings within the rhythm of Payne’s masterly storytelling." -- Michael P. Jeffries - New York Times Book Review"Fascinating and essential.... [Payne] adds invaluably to our understanding of Malcolm’s story." -- Mark Whitaker - Washington Post"Masterfully, [Payne] wove together the memories of friends, family, acquaintances, informants, and adversaries into a rich tapestry from which emerges the portrait of a complex individual working to make change in a society also full of contradictions. The book, which ultimately took more than three decades to produce, was completed after Payne’s 2018 death by his daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who also contributed the book’s introduction...[Payne's] meticulous recovery of Malcolm’s youth adds a new dimension to Malcolm’s less familiar 'origins story'....By giving a second life to a historical Malcolm, Les Payne’s timely biography illustrates something really important. It reminds us that those making history often do so by having the courage and conviction to act in spite of their limitations; their legacy can survive and continue to inspire even the deconstruction of the myths we build around them or the ones they construct themselves." -- Yohuru Williams - Boston Globe"Payne frequently revises or expands the historical record, offering the most detailed new account of Malcolm’s early years; the clearest argument yet (with new sources) that Earl Little, Malcolm’s father, died in an accident and not in a racist murder; the revelation that Shorty (the friend played by Spike Lee in the movie) is actually a composite; a deep dive into Malcolm’s ill-advised meeting with the Ku Klux Klan; and intriguing specifics on the assassination and its aftermath." -- Stuart Miller - Los Angeles Times"Masterful... The Dead Are Arising is a meticulously researched, compassionately rendered, and fiercely analytical examination of the radical revolutionary as a human being." -- Kerri Greenidge - The Atlantic"The Dead Are Arising, a new biography of Malcolm X, is timely. But perhaps this sobering book’s clearest message is that it will always be timely, because the story it narrates is timeless.... Les and Tamara Payne are especially good in detailing these early years of delinquency and rebirth. Like Robert Caro’s life of Lyndon Johnson, The Dead Are Arising delves deeply into the wider context of Malcolm’s world.... The book shows better than any previous biography the extent to which the NOI’s outlook was rooted in Marcus Garvey’s ‘Back to Africa’ movement of the 1920s.... Malcolm was uneasy about sitting down with white supremacists, but he’d been ordered to do so by ‘the Messenger’ Elijah Muhammad.... The encounter, covered in a riveting 63-page chapter that’s based on a wealth of new evidence, is the Paynes’ showstopper." -- Andrew Preston - The Spectator"The Dead Are Arising sets out to provide a much fuller picture of the life and death of Malcolm X, drawing on interviews with his friends and family to assess his contribution in the context of the times. The book is based on decades of painstaking research by Les Payne, who died before it was completed, and his daughter Tamara.... It is as much a history of US race relations as it is a biography of the black revolutionary.... The Dead Are Arising rightly sees Malcolm’s split from the cult-like Nation of Islam as inevitable, given the organisation’s reactionary political stances." -- Kehinde Andrews - The Guardian"[The Dead Are Arising is] the most lyrical and complete biography of this uniquely brilliant American ever written. This book is a great read, full of original insights about an elusive figure rendered deeply human." -- David Blight, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom"Monumental. . . Payne’s richly detailed account is based on hundreds of interviews with Malcolm X’s family members, childhood friends, cellmates, allies, and enemies, and meticulously tracks his journey from Omaha. . . to his emergence as the Nation of Islam’s ‘most gifted and successful proselytizer and demander of justice,’ and his assassination in 1965. Along the way, Payne folds in incisive portraits of [major] figures. . . An extraordinary and essential portrait of the man behind the icon." -- Library Journal, starred review"Comprehensive, timely life of the renowned activist and his circuitous rise to prominence. . . . Payne delivers considerable news not just in recounting unknown episodes of Malcolm’s early years, but also in reconstructing events during his time as a devotee of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad . . . Payne’s accounts of the consequences that rupture and Malcolm’s assassination at the hands of a ‘goon squad’ with ties to the FBI and CIA are eye-opening, and they add a new dimension to our understanding of Malcolm X’s last years. . . . A superb biography and an essential addition to the library of African American political engagement." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Pulitzer winner Payne (1941–2018) spent nearly 30 years researching and writing this monumental biography of human rights activist Malcolm X. Completed by his daughter and researcher, Payne’s richly detailed account is based on hundreds of interviews with Malcolm X’s family members, childhood friends, cellmates, allies, and enemies, and meticulously tracks his journey from Omaha, Neb., where he was born Malcolm Little in 1925, through his teenage pot dealing in East Lansing, Mich., and street criminal days in Boston and Harlem, to his emergence as the Nation of Islam’s “most gifted and successful proselytizer and demander of justice,” and his assassination in 1965. Along the way, Payne folds in incisive portraits of such major figures as Marcus Garvey, whose teachings on racial uplift Malcolm X’s parents followed; Moorish Science Temple leader Noble Drew Ali, whose follower, Fard Muhammad, founded the Nation of Islam; and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Payne also documents the radio dramas and jazz music Malcolm X listened to, reveals how a clandestine meeting with the Georgia Ku Klux Klan in 1961 contributed to his break from the Nation of Islam, and interviews two men wrongly imprisoned for his murder. The result is an extraordinary and essential portrait of the man behind the icon." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review"Les Payne has written a biography of this African American icon that sets a new standard for investigative journalism." -- DeWayne Wickham, founding dean of Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism & Communication"Monumental and absorbing... peers into the gaps left by Malcolm X’s autobiography, taking us more deeply into the intimate details of his life, work and death. In vivid detail, Payne retells the events leading up to Malcolm X’s assassination, offering fresh information about those involved. The Dead Are Arising is essential reading.... captur[ing] the vibrant voice of a revolutionary whose words resonate powerfully in our own times." -- Henry L. Carrigan Jr., BookPage, starred review"Meticulously researched and masterfully reported, this chronicle offers fresh insights and disturbing revelations that, among other things, strengthen the case for government complicity in the murder of Malcolm X. . . . A gripping read . . . [and] a worthy companion to Malcolm’s famed autobiography." -- Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America"The Dead Are Arising. . . will become the definitive biography of Malcolm X." -- Ray Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State"A brilliant and indispensable depiction of the life of Malcolm X. . . . Using the fruits of decades of interviews, [Payne] brings new information and perspectives on one of the most fascinating, and often misunderstood, figures in American history." -- Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello, winner of the Pulitzer Prize"Payne’s storytelling weave[s] an epic tale of Malcolm’s exuberant life, his tragic death, and the Phoenix-like legacy." -- Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of Harlem Nocturne"The result of nearly three decades of investigative reporting, The Dead Are Arising is an essential new biography of one of the most compelling political figures of the twentieth century." -- Jill Lepore, author of These Truths"No one who wishes to reckon with the life of this man, one of the most important African American figures of the twentieth century can afford to forgo this account." -- Howard W. French, Columbia University

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Book SynopsisWilliam Monroe Trotter (1872– 1934), though still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verve of a newspaperman and the unwavering fearlessness of an emancipator, he galvanized black working- class citizens to wield their political power despite the violent racism of post- Reconstruction America. For more than thirty years, the Harvard-educated Trotter edited and published the Guardian, a weekly Boston newspaper that was read across the nation. Defining himself against the gradualist politics of Booker T. Washington and the elitism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Trotter advocated for a radical vision of black liberation that prefigured leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Synthesizing years of archival research, historian Kerri Greenidge renders the drama of turn- of- the- century America and reclaims Trotter as a seminal figure, whose prophetic, yet ultimately tragic, life offers a link between the vision of Frederick Douglass and black radicalism in the modern era.Trade Review"Kerri K. Greenidge’s spirited biography [is] an ardent and mostly approving account of Trotter’s life that nevertheless conveys the more vexing elements of his personality…. Black Radical opens up a rich seam of inquiry that persists to this day, about the tug-of-war between reformers and radicals, and whether victories that seem purely symbolic at first can ripple out into real-world effects later on." -- Jennifer Szalai, New York Times ("Times Critics Top Books of 2019")"[Trotter's] legacy presents a challenge to those who seek change today: is compromise a necessary evil of any social movement, or is it the original sin of collective action? Greenidge argues that [his] protests, dismissed by many people at the time as publicity-seeking stunts, are Trotter’s real legacy.... One of the most satisfying accomplishments of Black Radical is the way that Greenidge situates Trotter’s biography in the broader story of liberal New England. Boston, Greenidge reminds her readers, incubated the politics of Malcolm X and of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., not to mention the writers Pauline Hopkins and Dorothy West." -- Casey Cep, The New Yorker"In this engagingly written biography, historian Kerri Greenidge has penned a volume that provides a penetrating view of William Monroe Trotter’s radical thought and remarkable life. Black Radical incisively explores Trotter’s thirty years of editing and publishing the Guardian and brilliantly traces his influence on the emergence of “radical black consciousness at the turn of the twentieth century.” Moreover, this volume provides a detailed and compelling portrait of African American life in Boston; accessible to all readers, Greenidge’s new book is a valuable addition to the literature." -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University"This engaging account of the life of William Monroe Trotter reclaims the vital work of an unsung activist and the complex reality of the long civil rights movement. Black Radical reminds us that the historic fight against racial violence and injustice was as Northern as it was Southern, as renegade as it was reformist. An important book and a rich chronicle of the past with urgent lessons for today." -- Alondra Nelson, author of Body and Soul"William Monroe Trotter was not only present at the creation of the modern civil rights movement, Kerri Greenidge's welcome biography establishes that by his visionary militancy and selfless financial support Trotter merits reconsideration as progenitor of the movement. A major addition to the literature." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer prize-winning author of W. E. B. DuBois, Volumes 1 and 2"Kerri Greenidge has created the rare book where the actual writing is as exquisite as the stunning research. Black Radical offers a lush layered story and a blueprint for liberation." -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

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Book SynopsisAs the courts betray us and our leaders fail us, only we can keep each other safe. In this powerful, empathetic look at abortion clinic escorting, “one of the most under-covered and crucial, lifesaving, rigorous forms of activism out there” (Rebecca Traister), Lauren Rankin offers real hope—and a real call to action for a post-Roe America. Incisive and eye-opening, Bodies on the Line makes a clear case that the right to an abortion is a fundamental part of human dignity. And now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, the stakes facing us all if that right disappears have never been higher.Clinic escorts—everyday volunteers who shepherd patients safely inside to receive care—are fighting on the front lines by replacing hostility with humanity. Prepared to stand up and protect abortion access as they have for decades, even in the face of terrorism and violence, clinic escorts live—and have even died—to ensure that abortion remains not only accessible but a basic human right. Their stories have never been told—until now.With precision and passion, Lauren Rankin traces the history and evolution of this movement to tell a broader story of the persistent threats to safe and legal abortion access, and the power of individuals to stand up and fight back. Deeply researched, featuring interviews with clinic staff, patients, experts, and activists—plus the author’s own experience as a clinic escort—Bodies on the Line reframes the “abortion wars,” highlighting the power of people to effect change amid unimaginable obstacles, and the unprecedented urgency of channeling that power.

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Book SynopsisThe story of the people who see beyond the stars—an astronomy book for adults still spellbound by the night sky.Humans from the earliest civilizations through today have craned their necks each night, using the stars to orient themselves in the large, strange world around them. Stargazing is a pursuit that continues to fascinate us: from Copernicus to Carl Sagan, astronomers throughout history have spent their lives trying to answer the biggest questions in the universe. Now, award-winning astronomer Emily Levesque shares the stories of modern-day stargazers in this new nonfiction release, the people willing to adventure across high mountaintops and to some of the most remote corners of the planet, all in the name of science.From the lonely quiet of midnight stargazing to tall tales of wild bears loose in the observatory, The Last Stargazers is a love letter to astronomy and an affirmation of the crucial role that humans can and must play in the future of scientific discovery.In this sweeping work of narrative science, Levesque shows how astronomers in this scrappy and evolving field are going beyond the machines to infuse creativity and passion into the stars and space and inspires us all to peer skyward in pursuit of the universe's secrets.Trade Review"Levesque leads readers on a pilgrimage to observatories throughout the world in her wonderful debut. This will particularly appeal to young women interested in science, but any stargazer would enjoy this joyous adventure through modern astronomy." - Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review"If you've ever wondered what astronomers do--what they really do—and the human journey from the era of eyepieces to gigantic robotic cameras, The Last Stargazers puts you there with compelling honesty, following the scientists and students with hundred-ton telescopes as backdrop." - Erik Asphaug, author of When the Earth Had Two Moons

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Book SynopsisCelebrity philanthropy comes in many guises, but no single figure better encapsulates its delusions, pretensions and wrongheadedness than U2's iconic frontman, Bono-a fact neither sunglasses nor leather pants can hide. More than a mere philanthropist-indeed, he lags behind many of his peers when it comes to parting with his own money-Bono is better described as an advocate, one who has become an unwitting symbol of a complacent wealthy Western elite.The Frontman reveals how Bono moved his investments to Amsterdam to evade Irish taxes; his paternalistic and often bullying advocacy of neoliberal solutions in Africa; his multinational business interests; and his hobnobbing with Paul Wolfowitz and shock-doctrine economist Jeffrey Sachs. Carefully dissecting the rhetoric and actions of Bono the political operator, The Frontman shows him to be an ambassador for imperial exploitation, a man who has turned his attention to a world of savage injustice, inequality and exploitation-and helped make it worse.Trade ReviewI genuinely see myself as a traveling salesman. I think that's what I do. I sell songs door-to-door on tour. I sell ideas like debt relief, and like all salesmen, I'm a bit of an opportunist and I see Africa as great opportunity. -- Bono

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Book SynopsisThis is the first collection of essays on Chartism by leading social historian Dorothy Thompson, whose work radically transformed the way in which Chartism is understood. Reclaiming Chartism as a fully-blown working-class movement, Thompson intertwines her penetrating analyses of class with ground-breaking research uncovering the role played by women in the movement.Throughout her essays, Thompson strikes a delicate balance between down-to-the-ground accounts of local uprisings, snappy portraits of high-profile Chartist figures as well as rank-and-file men and women, and more theoretical, polemical interventions.Of particular historical and political significance is the previously unpublished substantial essay co-authored by Dorothy and Edward Thompson, a superb piece of local historical research by two social historians then on the brink of notable careers.Trade Review“Ever alert, Dorothy Thompson probed beneath the outer surface of evidence. The results were innovatory. Her work brought to life the intense and dangerous interior world of working class meetings, conventions and newspapers.” —Sheila Rowbotham, Guardian “Dorothy Thompson is Chartism’s pre-eminent historian. She writes in a careful, passionate, and welcoming style giving pride of place to the voices in hymn, oratory, diary, and newspaper of the men and women who struggled against the child-consuming factory, the complacency of Victorianism, and empire-induced starvations. Those voices arose in the era of Liberalism. They need to be heeded still.” —Peter Linebaugh “These essays convey the distilled political and historical wisdom of a lifetime, and what a life it was. Dorothy Thompson will forever be remembered alongside the great Chartist movement she so brilliantly brought to vital, creative life.” —Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom “Dorothy Thompson, who pioneered the writing of labour history from below, emerges as a complex and lucid philosopher of social change in these writings, which also chart the evolution of the post-war British left’s thinking about both its future and its past.” —Paul Mason “Awesome is an over-used word in modern parlance, but Dorothy Thompson’s knowledge of Chartism was just that. She was the pre-eminent historian of the movement.” —Owen Ashton, Labour History Review “Dorothy Thompson brought her extraordinary knowledge of Chartism together with a passionate commitment to democratic change. Her lifetime’s work on the movement remains unsurpassed in its range and historical vision.” —James Epstein, Vanderbilt University “Dorothy Thompson was both a remarkable person and an influential historian of Chartism. This collection of her essays…highlights the approach of one of a formidable pair of fellow historians and left-wing intellectuals.” —Penelope J. Corfield, History Today “This is an extremely valuable volume … Thompson offers a master class in historical research and presentation … This is superb history … Read Dorothy Thompson’s marvellous book.”—Counterfire “A handsome, readable and enjoyable collection.” —The Local Historian (British Association for Local History)

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Book SynopsisHistories of the US sixties invariably focus on New York City, but Los Angeles was an epicenter of that decade's political and social earthquake. L.A. was a launchpad for Black Power-where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation-and home to the Chicano walkouts and Moratorium, as well as birthplace of 'Asian America' as a political identity, base of the antiwar movement, and of course, centre of California counterculture.Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive movement history of L.A. in the sixties, drawing on extensive archival research, scores of interviews with principal figures of the 1960s movements, and personal histories (both Davis and Wiener are native Los Angelenos). Following on from Davis's award-winning L.A. history, City of Quartz, Set the Night on Fire is a fascinating historical corrective, delivered in scintillating and fiercely elegant prose.Trade ReviewThis huge and exhilarating work of history aims to restore some depth and accuracy to how we talk about Los Angeles in the 1960s ... Davis and Wiener have created an important book to read in a time where LA needs more than ever to be mobilized. -- John Freeman * Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2020 *The familiar, monochromatic picture of Los Angeles in the sixties - all Hollywood pop and Didion ennui - required a million people of African, Asian, and Mexican ancestry to be 'edited out of utopia,' as Mike Davis and Jon Wiener put it. What those people actually did, alongside antiwar feminists, high school students, and others, is the heart of this book, and it's a big heart. No one could tell these intersecting stories better than Davis and Wiener, and their book gives us back a great city's greatness in its movements, edges, and other centers, so many of them forgotten. -- Rebecca Solnit, author of Recollections of My NonexistenceFrom the Ash Grove to Aztlán, from the Valley to Vietnam, it's all here. In showing how struggles for free health care, adequate housing, functional schools, racial and sexual liberation, new forms of creativity, and the human right of freedom from brutal police violence came together into a mighty torrent, Wiener and Davis have written a revolutionary history for an age of continuing contradictions. -- Daniel Widener, author of Black Arts WestThe great task of Set the Night on Fire is to remedy the erasures of the black, brown, and queer activists who put their bodies on the line. Revolutionary artist-nuns, educator-organizers, and free-jazz radicals are just a few of a vast cast that together paint a stirring portrait of a visionary city ever emerging from the shadows of the old order. Viva Los Angeles Libre! -- Rubén Martínez, author of Desert AmericaThis is not the theme park of mansions, beaches, and glitzed-up noir, but the undercity of outsiders struggling to get out from under the savage police to stake out a place in the sun. A rare and necessary saga of unsung heroes, vicious authorities, and unpunished crimes. -- Todd Gitlin, author of The SixtiesThis is history from below, in the very best sense. A magnificent mural of the local sixties, written with verve and passion by two of my favorite locals. -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Natural CausesA richly detailed portrait of a city that seethed with rebellious energy. * Kirkus Reviews *Set the Night on Fire fixes on one mission - collate the stories of emancipation struggle in '60s LA - and runs with it, using document research to complete the job. This is the approach Davis has been using in the twenty-first century, and it works. -- Sasha Frere-Jones * Bookforum *An indispensable portrait of an unexplored chapter in the history of American progressivism. * Publishers Weekly *Insightful and innovative...Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties is both a fierce political and cultural history and a geographic corrective. -- William Deverell * Alta *Authoritative and impressive...Set the Night on Fire is an essential reference to L.A.'s rich history of civil unrest, with a hopeful undercurrent. Movements can and often do force change. -- Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein * Los Angeles Times *A monumental history of rebellion and resistance. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Combining comprehensive, mineshaft-deep research with unique firsthand knowledge, [Davis and Wiener's] recounting of the radical '60s in Los Angeles will likely not be surpassed. -- Jerald Podair * Los Angeles Review of Books *Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties is a book as vast as the city itself. -- Ron Jacobs * CounterPunch *Monumental...For new generations growing up in a city whose very history is rarely acknowledged to exist, Set the Night on Fire is a vital primer in resistance, a gift to the future from the past. -- Ben Ehrenreich * Guardian *These are war stories, the intended audience of which is the young organizers of today, many of them the children and grandchildren of his friends and heroes in the sixties. -- Dana Goodyear * New Yorker *Anyone familiar with Mike Davis's magisterial social history of Los Angeles, City of Quartz, will know what to expect in terms of the epic sweep and questioning tone of Set the Night on Fire. This time, the focus is firmly on race and rebellion, but he and Wiener also map out the myriad protest movements, countercultural voices and campaigns that made 1960s Los Angeles an altogether more edgy and volatile city than the state's hippy capital, San Francisco. -- Sean O'Hagan * Guardian *Davis and Wiener have crafted a book that is both encyclopedic and prophetic, scholarly and polemical...Readers would be hard-pressed to find better guides for a tour of leftist Los Angeles. -- Sean Dempsey, S.J. * America magazine *This very readable but meticulously detailed year-by-year account has relevance far beyond its time and place. The sixties were a decade that shaped politics for half a century and the authors show how different struggles were interlinked across the US. -- Glyn Robbins * Morning Star *An essential rescued history * New York Journal of Books *Mike Davis and Jon Wiener tell the story of a decade of explosions. -- Meagan Day * Jacobin *In Set the Night on Fire, Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide an extensive history of L.A. that includes interviews with key players from these movements and their own personal recollections. -- Danielle Bauter * Los Angeles Daily News *Highly readable...Davis and Wiener succeed in giving renewed attention to the neglected voices of subjugated minorities central to the reconstruction of society. * LSE Review of Books *An astonishing book that proves that people really do have the power to force change for the better. * Buzz Magazine *A remarkably well-researched volume, which chronologically itemises each and every twist and turn in the muddled patchwork of American history -- KCW LondonAn exhaustive and in-depth presentation of the wide-ranging big and small resistance movements of [the sixties] with a sober and insightful account of their strengths and weaknesses, including the role that the political left played in them. Its publication in 2020 could not be more timely in these days when tens of thousands have been demonstrating in Los Angeles and across the country and world against police brutality and racism. -- Samuel Farber * Jacobin *A history of the social and political struggles of the 1960s unlike most others. * The VVA Veteran *Monumental...Set the Night on Fire is, above all, a historical account of how a rainbow of insurgent social movements tried to peel back the glitter, dismantle the police state, and replace elite white rule and its regimes of segregation, militarism, patriarchy, and conformity with a society oriented toward "serving the people." -- Robin D. G. Kelley * Boston Review *Two veteran authors allow themselves vast detail to tell us about the cradle of counterculture, in all the far-flung rebellious meanings of the term. It is also the story of L.A.'s contested racial space, with contradictions ranging from radicalized white youngsters in the suburban sprawl to Chicano Teamsters breaking strikes. -- Paul Buhle * Rain Taxi *Set the Night on Fire is a sort of bequeathal from one generation of activists to another. * Mother Jones *Timely...We can do more than repeat the past; we can also learn from it. That gives reason for hope and as Set the Night on Fire makes clear, hope has always been Leviathan's great antagonist. * Times Literary Supplement *An invigorating and inspiring read * Morning Star *Set the Night on Fire is a revelatory history of Los Angeles in the 1960s, undermining pervasive media myths of the era. -- Alex Ross * Wall Street Journal *A page-turning survey of social movement activism in 1960s Los Angeles...Set the Night on Fire is a serious, informative book that is also a pleasurable, fun, and inspiring read. -- Andrew S. Baer * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *Essential and long overdue. -- David Ulin * Los Angeles Times ("Best California books of 2020") *An invigorating and inspiring read * Morning Star *Set the Night on Fire aims to dislodge the popular conception of sixties radicalism as the terrain of white Berkeley hippies and New Left agitators. Instead, Blacks, Latinos, high-school students, and unreconstructed communists were at the center of the city's struggles against segregation and police impunity. -- John Thomason * Commonweal Magazine *

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Book SynopsisWhat is the relation of art to the practice of radical politics today? Strike Art explores this question through the historical lens of Occupy, an event that had artists at its core. Precarious, indebted, and radicalized, artists redirected their creativity from servicing the artworld into an expanded field of organizing in order to construct of a new-if internally fraught-political imaginary set off against the common enemy of the 1%. In the process, they called the bluff of a contemporary art system torn between ideals of radical critique, on the one hand, and an increasing proximity to Wall Street on the other-oftentimes directly targeting major art institutions themselves as sites of action.Tracking the work of groups including MTL, Not an Alternative, the Illuminator, the Rolling Jubilee, and G.U.L.F, Strike Art shows how Occupy ushered in a new era of artistically-oriented direct action that continues to ramify far beyond the initial act of occupation itself into ongoing struggles surrounding labor, debt, and climate justice, concluding with a consideration of the overlaps between such work and the aesthetic practices of the Black Lives Matter movement.Art after Occupy, McKee suggests, contains great potentials of imagination and action for a renewed left project that are still only beginning to ripen, at once shaking up and taking flight from the art system as we know it.Trade ReviewThis irrepressibly vibrant page-turner is the first art historical reading of Occupy Wall Street, and a canny account of politically engaged art before, during and after the events of 2011. I'm tempted to call it the sequel to Artificial Hells, but this would do a disservice to its enthusiastic approach to activism. No left melancholia here-just a powerful commitment to the liberatory horizon of both progressive art and politics. -- Claire Bishop, author of Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of SpectatorshipStrike Art is, above all, a book of cultural documentation, one that relives the events and "ethical spectacle" of a radical political moment that seems to be giving way, in the usual manner, to a pursuit of electoral success rather than wholesale reform. The art that McKee discusses is often transient by design, produced by collectives or anonymous bodies, and distributed freely or slyly entered into the circulation systems of the culture at large. * Harper's *Strike Art is written by someone who was directly involved in the day-to-day organizing work of [Occupy Wall Street], and who continues to participate in the movement's afterlife. McKee's book is therefore replete with granular information about the ambitious, and sometimes ambiguous, revolt of the 99%, details that other commentators can only address in a second-hand manner. In this sense he aligns his writing with Walter Benjamin's well-known directive that authors become producers with a 'tendentious' tilt towards working class struggles. * E-flux *

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Book SynopsisThis timely sticker book brings together around 200 of the best protest stickers created by artists and activists around the world. Funny, irreverent, bold and poignant, the stickers tackle key issues of acute concern today, including feminism, equality/LGBTQ rights, racism, nationalism, immigration and asylum. Join the protest movement, stickerbomb the world around you and Stick it to the Man!Trade Review"From satirical stickers of tyrants such as Mao, Putin and Assad to a variety of stickers campaigning for environmental causes; this book encompasses a visual style for everyone." -- It’s Nice That"Want to make a political statement, but your graffiti skills aren’t up to scratch? Or perhaps your desk is crying out for cutting-edge art? Then the 'Stick It To The Man! Protest Stickers' book from Stickerbomb is right up your street" -- - Notebook, Sunday Mirror

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Book SynopsisThe autumn and winter of 2010 saw an unprecedented wave of student protests across the UK, in response to the coalition government's savage cuts in state funding for higher education, cuts which formed the basis for an ideological attack on the nature of education itself. Involving universities and schools, occupations, sit-ins and demonstrations, these protests spread with remarkable speed. Rather than a series of isolated incidents, they formed part of a growing movement that spans much of the Western world and is now spreading into North Africa. Ever since the Wall Street crash of 2008 there has been increasing social and political turbulence in the heartlands of capital.From the US to Europe, students have been in the vanguard of protest against their governments' harsh austerity measures. Tracing these worldwide protests, this new book explores how the protests spread and how they were organized, through the unprecedented use of social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter. It looks, too, at events on the ground, the demonstrations, and the police tactics: kettling, cavalry charges and violent assault.From Athens to Rome, San Francisco to London and, most recently, Tunis, this new book looks at how the new student protests developed into a strong and challenging movement that demands another way to run the world. Consisting largely of the voices that participated in the struggle, Springtime will become an essential point of reference as the uprising continues.

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Book SynopsisEveryone has an opinion about Winnie Mandela, and usually a strong one. She has been adored, feared and hates more than any other women in South African history. But few people know much about the life behind the headlines, myths and soundbites. This biography takes an in-depth and intimate look at Winnie Mandela's personal and political life, and takes the reader on a remarkable journey of understanding.

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Book SynopsisChristopher Schaefer Ph.D. taught international politics and economics at Tufts University and M.I.T. before becoming an organizational development consultant. He co-founded the Waldorf School in Lexington, Mass. and the Centre for Social Development at Emerson College in England as well as Social Ecology Associates, an international consultancy group.He wrote Partnerships of Hope : Building Waldorf School Communities. A grandfather and activist, he calls for a free, equal and mutual society in a new Covenant between the American people and its government that engages both conservatives and progressives

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Book SynopsisLena is on a mission to veganise her Tinder dates. Multiple conquests later, Lena finds herself looking for her next victim - but what happens when her life starts to rapidly crumble around her? Meat Cute explores the trials and tribulations of activism and what it means to care in an indifferent world.Trade Review"I laughed out loud and nodded in recognition, but what will stay with me the longest is the compelling argument to change my way of life." - SW Londoner; "It was really well written, topical, and funny. In particular, it really made me think about the animal activist movement and how it affects people." - londonpubtheatres.com; "Meat Cute provides deliciously crafted, beautifully balanced, food for thought." - westendbestfriend.co.uk. "Lucille is an exceptional performer and gives the audience a masterclass in multi-roling. Every character she plays has a different accent, mannerisms, voice and facial expressions." - Lost in Theatre Land;

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