Journalist Vincent Bevins’ most recent
book, If We Burn, poses an urgent and provocative question: why is it that so many of the
mass protests of the last decade led to the opposite of what the protesters
were demanding?
Bevins provides fascinating insights about what
sparked the uprisings
that took place between 2010 and 2020 in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen,
Turkey, Brazil, Ukraine, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Chile, and why these
protests (mostly) failed to accomplish their goals. Good-faith arguments are
hard to come by; readable books on global affairs, even more so.
Bevins has an
impressive ability to write nonfiction that’s as
accessible as it is intellectually rigorous, and his eye for detail and love of
humanity make this book a pleasure to read.
This book is phenomenal ... It's about as good as journalism gets ...The highest praise I can give If We Burn is to say that it would be criminally negligent not to read it if you'd like to change the world. - ROB DELANEY
Bevins's clear-eyed, sympathetic account of the unfulfilled promise of these protests leaves his reader with a bold vision of the future. - MERVE EMRE
A stunning history of now. - GREG GRANDIN
From 2010 to 2020, more people took part in protests than at any other point in human history. Why has success been so elusive?…
Sociologist Jamie K. McCallum traces labor actions throughout
the coronavirus pandemic and what they revealed about the shocking precarity
and poor working conditions frontline workers faced and continue to face.
The
book shows how and why the crisis sparked an uptick in labor struggles that’s
helping to revitalize the American labor movement today. McCallum’s voice and
narrative sensibility are compelling, but what I really love about this book is
that it transforms everyday working-class people from abstract category
(“essential workers”) to dynamic human characters with agency and power.
How essential workers’ fight for better jobs during the pandemic revolutionized US labor politics
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, essential workers lashed out against low wages, long hours, and safety risks, attracting a level of support unseen in decades. This explosion of labor unrest seemed sudden to many. But Essential reveals that American workers had simmered in discontent long before their anger boiled over.
Decades of austerity, sociologist Jamie K. McCallum shows, have left frontline workers vulnerable to employer abuse, lacking government protections, and increasingly furious. Through firsthand research conducted as the pandemic unfolded, McCallum traces the evolution of workers’ militancy,…
Maeve Binchy is the author I
most often turn to for solace in dark times. She is a natural storyteller with
a rare generosity of spirit.
The Glass Lake, which I didn’t read until this
year although it came out in 1994, is one of my favorites: it’s part mystery,
part romantic drama, and partly a story about mothers, daughters, and the toll
secrets take: there’s suspense and intrigue and shocking twists and sharp social
critique, as well as laugh-out-loud humor and gentle acceptance of human nature
in all its flawed glory.
It’s long but extremely well-paced and filled with
strong female characters and intense personal sacrifices I will never forget.
'THE GLASS LAKE is Maeve Binchy at her spellbinding best - you'll never want it to end' Woman's Journal
'Maeve Binchy really knows what makes women tick. She crystallises their hopes, dreams and passions in her novels and now she has done it again in THE GLASS LAKE ... a marvellous read' Daily Mirror
Kit McMahon lives in the small Irish town of Lough Glass, a place where nothing changes - until the day Kit's mother disappears and Kit is haunted by the memory of her mother, alone at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face.
The Rise of a New Left traces the growth of a
women-led, multiracial, multi-class, new “new left” in the United States—from
Occupy Wall Street to the insurgent campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and the mass uprisings of 2020—and its historic and growing
influence on American politics. The book draws on dozens of interviews with
candidates and organizers throughout the country whose priorities are more
urgent than ever in 2023: confronting climate change, managing a global
pandemic, upholding human rights, ensuring that Black lives matter, and
replacing failing American institutions with truly democratic bodies.
