Free eBooks Necessary Trouble: Americans In Revolt Available To Downloads
“Sarah Jaffe marches into the class war, fighting the good fight with a pen as sharp as any sword.” —Bill Moyers“The most compelling social and political portrait of our age.” —Robin D. G. KelleyWe are witnessing a moment of unprecedented political engagement and social activism. Pundits once fretted about Americans’ apathy, but in the last few years we’ve seen uprisings and protests across the country: the growth of the Tea Party, the successful fight for a $15 minimum wage, BlackLivesMatter, Occupy Wall Street, and the grassroots networks supporting presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders.In Necessary Trouble, journalist Sarah Jaffe leads readers into the heart of these movements, explaining what has made ordinary Americans from Seattle to St. Louis to Atlanta become activists. As Jaffe shows, Americans, regardless of political alignment, are boldly challenging who wields power in this country. They are poised to permanently remake politics as we know it—and in many cases, they already have.
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Nation Books (August 23, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568585365
ISBN-13: 978-1568585369
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #16,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #9 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Elections & Political Process > Political Advocacy #19 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Human Rights #34 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Class
This book will probably make you very angry, but it might just make you feel better about yourself as well. That's what it did for me. Jaffe does an astounding job of tying together the political and economic events of the past several years (do you know what actually happened when the housing market bubble burst? Would you like to?) with personal stories of real people from all over the nation.Perhaps the most impressive and, to steal from the title, necessary thing that this book achieves is that it demonstrates the difficulties shared by groups whose political beliefs appear to be polar opposites. This, to me, has so much more value than vague platitudes of "we're all human!" It provides a practical, real-world, concrete answer to the frequently question "what are they so angry about?" for multiple values of 'they.'The book is written in such a way as to be extremely readable as well. If you read it and stop here, you'll still have learned something, or it can be the introductory gateway to a much deeper understanding of what's happening in America.
I've been a longtime admirer of Sarah Jaffe's journalism and her reporting translates to a long-form book so well. She speaks to you like an impassioned friend who is excited and knowledgeable and wants to engage you in thinking about how we got where we are now. She expertly intertwines personal first-hand experiences with the larger cultural and political shift toward a movement for economic justice. It's interesting to find the common thread across movements that seem different in political orientation or time and space. It helps understand what is happening in this particular political moment. I'd recommend it to anyone who is curious about how social justice movements connect to each other and where we are going from here.
A brilliant and incisive take on how seemingly disparate movements connect. From the Tea Party to Occupy to Black Lives Matter, people in the US are angry and frustrated, and turning to different types of direct action to try and make changes after years of being ignored. This book is a great introduction to all these movements and how they came from the same place; it also demonstrates how movements that seem to end often have last consequences. Occupy, for instance, was declared dead on a number of occasions but its legacy is clear in the 2016 presidential race. Jaffe is a fantastic writer and gives voice to a diverse group of activists and agitators. A must read if you want to understand where politics is going.
This is the book that has been needed for years now and Jaffe is the perfect journalist to write it. As legit as they come, her on-the-ground experience, her moral perspective, and decades of deep investigation and inquiry, all come together to produce a masterpiece. As someone who has seen a tiny fraction of what she has, I can say with confidence that her telling of this rising revolt against inequality is real, it's growing, and it is about damn time! This is a one-stop read for those who are trying to make sense of all of the uprisings that are popping up across the globe, seemingly disperse but actually deeply connected.
If you asked me a month ago what the Tea Party and Black Lives Matter have in common, I would have said, "nothing." But after reading Necessary Trouble, I can now point to any number of post-2008 movements and see the common threads. Whether Walmart employees or environmental activists, Jaffe shows how the deep dissatisfaction with and anger over the present state of affairs has been channeled into action and change. It's no longer business as usual. People are risking arrest and starting movements to disrupt the system and it is often working. (Glory be!) Jaffe shows each movement's strengths and struggles and I was particularly impressed by how she delved into the racism of certain segments of the Tea Party. I also loved the emphasis on intersectionality and the way class was highlighted as a common bond. Well researched and incredibly engaging, I underlined and asterisked my way through this book. It's a game-changer and definitely going on my Favorite list for 2016.Disclosure: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Necessary Trouble is one of the most essential books of the year -- an extensive, vivid overview of "trouble-making" organizers and movements from the 2008 financial crisis until, if not quite today, then the moment the book went to press. Each chapter not only covers a movement or group of campaigns, but also provides a concise but nuanced historical summary of the issues at hand.It's a book that feels "necessary" indeed, almost overdue. Whether we realized it or not, we have been in need of a book that traces the connections between the Wisconsin Capitol occupation and the campaigns waged by Walmart and fast-food workers, that looks honestly at what the Tea Party has had both in common and in conflict with protesters at Occupy Wall Street and in Ferguson, and that gives due credit to Moral Mondays and Black Lives Matter.And we have been in need of someone like Jaffe to do it, someone who understands intersectionality and class struggle, who resists simplistic narratives and avoids backseat organizing or condescending lectures about strategy, instead largely letting the people who made these movements happen tell their own stories.
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