Author: Adrienne Maree Brown & William
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Genre: Politics
Pages: 206
Retail Price: 9.99
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A good collection of essays on mobilizing the disenfranchised to vote and be more civically engaged. The pieces are mostly success stories, both on the election of longshot candidates and the overturning of unfair policies and laws, hammering home the important message to our cynical and apathetic youth that all is not hopeless.

The drawback to the book is that it offers few resources for those who want to follow its advice. It also preaches to the choir (as you can tell by even just the title, which screams left-wing activism and will scare off the cynical folks they’re trying to reach out to), so I don’t believe it will swing the 2004 election by mobilizing the masses, as it promises. Instead, I see the book more as a byproduct of a movement already underway. Just as Perot had his army of pissed-off older, conservative males in the 90s, we now have an army of pissed-off minorities, women, youth, and others who have been traditionally marginalized.

While I don’t think this book will convert many people into registered voters, it will definitely encourage and reaffirm those who are already politically minded and active.

Bottom Line: Power to the people!
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