To Make Something Better, We Have to Face It at Its Worst
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Schulman, Sarah. Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
Warfield, L., Crasshole, W., & Leyser, Y. (Eds.). Queercore: How to punk a revolution: An oral history. PM Press, 2021
Courage Is Not an Absence of Fear
Books reviewed:
Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear Into Pride, Power, and Real Change by Cristina Jiménez. St. Martin's Press: 2025.
When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse by Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi. North Atlantic Books: 2024.
How to Build the Movement We Need
Books reviewed:
Daniel, Vanessa Priya. Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning. Random House: 2025.
Ross, Loretta J. Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. Simon & Schuster: 2025.
Facing the Brutal Facts
Books reviewed:
Han, Hahrie. Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church. Knopf: 2024.
Phillips, Steve. How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. 2nd ed. New Press: 2024.
It’s the (Next) Economy, Stupid
Books reviewed:
Foster, Natalie. The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy. New Press, 2024.
Cohen, Donald, and Allen Mikaelian. The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back. New Press, 2023.
What If We Can Change Everything?
Books reviewed:
cȧrdenas, micha. Atoms Never Touch. AK Press, 2023.
Collins, Chuck. Altar to an Erupting Sun. Green Writers Press, 2023.
Fletcher, Bill, Jr. The Man Who Fell From the Sky. Hardball Press, 2018.
Fletcher, Bill, Jr. The Man Who Changed Colors. Hardball Press, 2023.
Imarisha, Walidah, and adrienne maree brown. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. AK Press, 2015.
Ritchie, Andrea, J. Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies. AK Press, 2023.
Sun, Kung Li. Begin the World Over. AK Press, 2022.
Quick Take: The Universals
Books reviewed:
Goehl, George. Fundamentals of Community Organizing. Self-published, 2024.
Marchiel, Rebecca K. After Redlining: The Urban Reinvestment Movement in the Era of Financial Regulation. University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Answering the Call: Strategy and Power-Building From the Bottom Up
Books Reviewed:
Bhargava, D., Luce, S. Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World. New Press, 2023.
Lewis, Lynn. Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice. City Lights, 2023.
Petitjean, Clément. Occupation: Organizer: A Critical History of Community Organizing in America. Haymarket Books, 2023.
Forging Revolutionary Tools
Book reviewed:
Redford, Katie and Mark Gevisser. The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century. OR, 2023.
More Than the Sum of Our Parts
Book Reviewed:
Grossinger, Ken. Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together. New Press: 2023.
What Else Is There To Do But Organize?
Books reviewed:
Cassedy, Ellen. Working 9 to 5: A Women’s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie. Chicago Review Press, 2022.
Mondros, Jacqueline B. and Joan Minieri. Organizing for Power and Empowerment: The Fight for Democracy. 2nd edition. Columbia University Press, 2023.
Shiller, Helen. Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win: Five Decades of Resistance in Chicago’s Uptown Community. Haymarket Books, 2022.
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Key to Transforming the Democratic Party and America
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Giridharadas, Anand. The Persuaders: At the Frontlines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. Knopf, 2022.
Kleeb, Jane. Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America. Harper Collins, 2020.
Maxmin, Chloe and Canyon Woodward. Dirt Road Revival: How To Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It. Beacon Press, 2022.
If You Can't Change the People, Then Change the People
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Kazin, Michael. What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
You Are Being Called to Greatness in the Face of the Apocalypse
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Smiley, Erica, and Sarita Gupta. The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. Cornell University Press, 2022.
Burnham, Linda, Max Elbaum and Maria Poblet. Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections. A project of Convergence: A Magazine of Radical Insights. O/R Books, 2022.
If You’re Not Building Power, You’re Just Admiring the Problem
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Malm, Andreas and the Zetkin Collective. White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism. Verso, 2021.
Malm, Andreas. How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire. Verso, 2021.
Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Ministry for the Future. Orbit, 2020.
How Long Must My Journey Go? Or, an organizer-bodhisaatva's guide to enlightenment
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Han, Hahrie, McKenna, and Oyakawa. Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First Century America. University of Chicago Press, 2021.
Mott, Andrew. Preparing to Win: Developing Community Leaders, Organizers and Allies. New Community Press, 2020.
Are You Committed to Fighting or Winning? Because there is a difference and it matters
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Subar, Rebecca. When to Talk and When to Fight: The Strategic Choice Between Dialogue and Resistance. PM Press, 2021.
Hayhoe, Katharine. Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Altria/One Signal Publishers, 2021.
Finding Your Path to Power
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Garza, Alicia. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. One World, 2020.
Fonda, Jane. What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action. Penguin Press, 2020.
We Have Found the Enemy (TLDR; It's Not Us)
BOOKS REVIEWED:
Perlstein, Rick. Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980. Simon and Schuster, 2020.
Teachout, Zephyr. Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2020.
McGhee, Heather. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. One World, 2021
How Cheap Things Expose the Root Causes of Our Biggest Problems
BOOK REVIEWED:
Patel, Raj, and Jason W. Moore. A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. University of California Press, 2017.