A whip-smart combo of self-help and political manifesto that is perfect for anyone who wants to save our democracy but doesn't know where to start.

In today's political climate, it's hard not to get discouraged. Isolated, doom scrolling, lacking a sense of purpose or community...it's easy to become overwhelmed by the dire state of American democracy and do nothing, because why try when the odds are never in our favor?

At this fragile moment in history, Emily Amick, lawyer and former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, alongside New York Times bestselling author and Betches Media cofounder Sami Sage, want to reframe civic engagement as a form of self-care: an assertion of one's values and self-respect. This book is not just about voting, but about claiming your singular place in your country and community.

Including real stories of regular people who have made a difference along with helpful exercises and quizzes, Democracy in Retrograde is a choose-your-own-adventure map to civic engagement that will help you:

*Define your values and passions
*Understand how the system works, so it's easier to know how to change it
*Match your personality, skills, resources, and interests, to meaningful actions within your community
*Implement changes (big and small) that matter
*Build a civic life that's sustainable and authentic to you, whether you have only a few minutes to spare or are ready to make a lifetime commitment

Democracy in Retrograde will help you learn about much more than just political action. This book will provide a new lens through which to see yourself: a new and powerful light which bridges the personal and the political. In the words of Joan Baez, action is the antidote to despair, and with this helpful guide, even if Mercury is in retrograde, our democracy doesn't have to be.

How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls pleasure activism, a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together they cover a wide array of subjects--from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs--building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.

Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!

adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and co-editor of Octavia's Brood, is a social justice facilitator focused on black liberation, a doula/healer, and a pleasure activist. She lives in Detroit.

PRAISE for Pleasure Activism:

This is no self-help manual--it's a weighty text that discusses everything from enthusiastic consent to U.S. drug policy--but it's a genuine, well, pleasure to read as well. The book's open, identity-affirming view of sex is wildly empowering, particularly for young people who might not have had the idea ingrained in them that intimate contact with another person should always be initiated out of a desire for pleasure. --Vogue

[brown] demonstrates how we can tap into our emotional and erotic desires to organize against oppression. --Colorlines

adrienne maree brown...continues to stake her claim as one of our most critical thinkers and strategists by intentionally combining the power of story-telling with practical applications to help readers conjure their own definition of pleasure and how it is inextricably linked to every part of our existence. --Monica Simpson, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

adrienne marie brown is back, again dropping wisdom about alternative ways to live at this deeply fucked-up moment ... Let this book be the best Valentine's Day gift you've ever given yourself. --Vice/Broadly

adrienne maree brown dives deep, head first, into a fast swirling pool of pleasure-related topics. She swims her way from one end of the pool to the other with some help from her body-wise, experienced, friends. This book is all at once so cool, and so hot, with a rainbow of glorious compleXXXities. Pleasure Activism is bound to make a huge splash! --Annie Sprinkle, author of Explorer's Guide to Planet Orgasm--For Every Body

Engaging with politics and social justice issues, whether it's climate change, race, or gender, can feel like work (and it is). Adrienne maree brown makes the case that you can feel good while doing so ... [Pleasure Activism] will challenge you to rethink your approach to changing the world. --Mashable

Pleasure Activism is an invitation to know ourselves and be in conversation with the desire of our lustful imaginations... [I]t makes our personal liberation irresistible. --Jasmine Burnett, activist and anti-oppression consultant

adrienne maree brown elucidates a philosophy of Pleasure Activism to transform individuals and so the world. Her explicit instructions encourage orgasms of the body, mind and spirit. First, in support of our own authentic lives, then so that we can live in loving community with others. It's like a wise and juicy black goddess reopened Eden and said, 'Okay, everybody, let's try this again.' --Veronica Vera, author & founder of Miss Vera's Finishing School For Boys Who Want to Be Girls

The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.--The New York Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR--The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

The Lawrence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal, presented by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world.
The 2020 Brown Democracy Medal winner, Srdja Popovic, was a leader in the revolution that brought down the Milosevic regime in Serbia and he continues to help protestors around the world learn effective, sometimes humorous, nonviolent tactics. In 2020, he teamed up with Sophia A. McClennen to study the concept of dilemma actions, which offers a structured, strategic approach to fighting back against authoritarianism, as well as for defending democracy.

In No Shortcuts, Jane McAlevey argues that progressives can win, but lack the organized power to enact significant change, to outlast their bosses in labor fights, and to hold elected leaders accountable. Drawing upon her experience as a scholar and longtime organizer in the student, environmental, and labor movements, McAlevey examines cases from labor unions and social movements to pinpoint the factors that helped them succeed - or fail - to accomplish their intended goals. McAlevey makes a compelling case that the great social movements of previous eras gained their power from mass organizing, a strategy today's progressives have mostly abandoned in favor of shallow mobilization or advocacy. She ultimately concludes that, in order to win, progressive movements need strong unions built from bottom-up organizing strategies that place the power for change in the hands of workers and ordinary people at the community level.

Beyond the concrete examples in this book, McAlevey's arguments have direct implications for anyone involved in organizing for social change. Much more than cogent analysis, No Shortcuts explains exactly how progressives can go about rebuilding powerful movements at work, in our communities, and at the ballot box.

Almost everyone shies away from advocacy as a way to make a difference. We donate to climate change organizations, but we don't meet with a member of Congress or write a letter to the editor. We donate to groups working to end gun violence, anti-hunger organizations, groups dedicated to racial justice, and many others, but we don't become advocates on those issues beyond signing an online petition or going to an occasional rally.

Why? Because most of us see advocacy as too hard or too frustrating, too complicated, or too partisan, too dirty or too time-consuming, too ineffective or too costly.

But what if that's all wrong? What if deep engagement dissolves discouragement and can actually bring joy? What if you can become an advocate for a cause you care about and feel fulfilled, not frustrated? And what if engaging as an advocate is essential to protecting our democracy?

President Jimmy Carter called the first edition of Reclaiming Our Democracy A road map for global involvement in planning a better future. In this completely revised and updated 2024 edition, Sam Daley-Harris uses his decades of experience leading and coaching citizens' advocacy groups to expand that road map and create an indispensable guide to engaged citizenship, an inspiring master class in transformational advocacy.

Reclaiming Our Democracy provides a powerful way to make a difference and heal our democracy in the process. It's not the only solution needed, but is one essential, missing piece: citizens awakening to their power.

In 1896, a Jewish state was a pipe dream. Today the overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists. How did this happen?

Ilan Pappe unveils how over a century of aggressive lobbying changed the map of the Middle East. Pro-Israel lobbies convinced British and American policymakers to condone Israel's flagrant breaches of international law, grant Israel unprecedented military aid and deny Palestinians rights. Anyone who questioned unconditional support for Israel, even in the mildest terms, became the target of relentless smear campaigns. Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic shows us how an unassailable consensus was built - and how it might be dismantled.

In the 1970s, Washington's center of power began to shift away from elected officials in big marble buildings to a handful of savvy, handsomely paid operators who didn't answer to any fixed constituency. The cigar-chomping son of an influential congressman, an illustrious political fixer with a weakness for modern art, a Watergate-era dirty trickster, the city's favorite cocktail party host--these were the sort of men who now ran Washington.

Over four decades, they'd chart new ways to turn their clients' cash into political leverage, abandoning favor-trading in smoke-filled rooms for increasingly sophisticated tactics, such as shadow lobbying, where underground campaigns sparked seemingly organic public outcries to pressure lawmakers into taking actions that would ultimately benefit corporate interests rather than ordinary citizens. With billions of dollars at play, these lobbying dynasties enshrined in Washington a pro-business consensus that would guide the country's political leaders--Democrats and Republicans alike. A good lobbyist could ghostwrite a bill or even secretly kill a piece of legislation supported by the president, both houses of Congress, and a majority of Americans.

Yet nothing lasts forever. Amid a populist backlash to the soaring inequality these influence peddlers helped usher in, DC's pro-business alliance suddenly began to fray. And while the lobbying establishment would continue to invent new ways to influence Washington, the men who'd built K Street would soon find themselves under legal scrutiny, on the verge of financial collapse or worse. One would turn up dead behind the eighteenth green of an exclusive golf club, with a $1,500 bottle of wine at his feed and bullet in his head.

An absorbing (The Atlantic), engrossing and meticulously researched tale (The Guardian)--brought to life with novelistic detail and considerable narrative skill (The New York Times)--The Wolves of K Street is essential reading for anyone looking to understand how corporate interests are undermining American democracy.

The gospel, graciously delivered, can change everything.

Even in politics.

Do you feel compelled to run for political office but aren't sure how or where to begin? Are you a pastor wondering how to address sensitive political issues with your church? Have you felt uncertain in the voting booth and wondered how to fulfill your civic duties without violating your conscience? Do you want to know how to speak to-and be heard by-your local city council or school board?

Sharing from decades of experience working to shape public policy, Richard Nelson offers this practical field guide for Christians who want guidance about how to engage in politics in a God-honoring and biblical manner. Christianity & Politics outlines Richard's work founding the Commonwealth Policy Center and ultimately changing the political landscape for generations of Kentuckians. If you are a Christian entering the public square at any level, or desire to see Christ-honoring policies framed into statute, this book is for you.

About the Commonwealth Policy Center

Founded in 2012 by Richard Nelson, the Commonwealth Policy Center's mission was to shore up the societal pillars of the sanctity of life, man/woman marriage, religious freedom, and fiscal integrity in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. There was no guarantee CPC would be able to move the political needle, much less make it past the first year. But by God's grace and through hard work, Nelson and CPC have been involved in public policy victories year after year.

CPC's vision to flip the Kentucky state House of Representatives in 2012 to a pro-life, principled conservative majority was achieved in just three election cycles. CPC helped pass significant pro-life laws and elect Kentucky's most conservative governor. Today, the unborn are protected by law, religious freedom is strengthened, and leftist indoctrination and gender confusion in our public schools have, in many cases, come to a halt. Today, Nelson and his team have an outsized impact on Kentucky's political and policy arenas. The Lexington Herald-Leader recognized CPC as one of the most impactful groups in the Kentucky General Assembly in 2024.

Blueprint for Revolution will teach you how to
- make oppression backfire by playing your opponents' strongest card against them
- identify the almighty pillars of power in order to shift the balance of control
- dream big, but start small: learn how to pick battles you can win
- listen to what people actually care about in order to incorporate their needs into your revolutionary vision
- master the art of compromise to bring together even the most disparate groups
- recognize your allies and view your enemies as potential partners
- use humor to make yourself heard, defuse potentially violent situations, and laugh your way to victory

Praise for Blueprint for Revolution

The title is no exaggeration. Otpor's methods . . . have been adopted by democracy movements around the world. The Egyptian opposition used them to topple Hosni Mubarak. In Lebanon, the Serbs helped the Cedar Revolution extricate the country from Syrian control. In Maldives, their methods were the key to overthrowing a dictator who had held power for thirty years. In many other countries, people have used what Canvas teaches to accomplish other political goals, such as fighting corruption or protecting the environment.--The New York Times

A clear, well-constructed, and easily applicable set of principles for any David facing any Goliath (sans slingshot, of course) . . . By the end of Blueprint, the idea that a punch is no match for a punch line feels like anything but a joke.--The Boston Globe

An entertaining primer on the theory and practice of peaceful protest.--The Guardian

With this wonderful book, Srdja Popovic is inspiring ordinary people facing injustice and oppression to use this tool kit to challenge their oppressors and create something much better. When I was growing up, we dreamed that young people could bring down those who misused their power and create a more just and democratic society. For Srdja Popovic, living in Belgrade in 1998, this same dream was potentially a much more dangerous idea. But with an extraordinarily courageous group of students that formed Otpor , Srdja used imagination, invention, cunning, and lots of humor to create a movement that not only succeeded in toppling the brutal dictator Slobodan Milosevic but has become a blueprint for nonviolent revolution around the world. Srdja rules --Peter Gabriel

Blueprint for Revolution is not only a spirited guide to changing the world but a breakthrough in the annals of advice for those who seek justice and democracy. It asks (and not heavy-handedly): As long as you want to change the world, why not do it joyfully? It's not just funny. It's seriously funny. No joke.--Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties and Occupy Nation

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories.

Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment.

Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

That experience, along with the guidance of leaders in systems thinking and racial justice, convinced her that the world's thorniest problems may be easier to tackle together than one by one. That's multisolving: using a single investment of time or money to solve many problems at the same time. (Reduced fossil fuel use = improvements in climate, health, equity, economics, and more.) While the idea of killing two birds with one stone (or filling two needs with one deed) is age-old, and the notion of co-benefits in policy-making has been around for years, Multisolving addresses the current mismatch between complex, deeply intertwined societal issues and our siloed approach to them.

This unique resource is for local school boards that need revenue for their students but don't want to overtax low-income seniors. It is for nonprofits working to reduce food waste and combat the root causes of hunger while increasing racial justice. It is for seaside communities that can protect themselves from flooding while also improving biodiversity with a living coastline. It may also be for you: doing the work you know is imperative but that is sometimes overwhelming, a tiny drop in a swirling ocean.
Multisolving can't promise a list of fifty simple things to make everything OK. What it does offer are strategies to build solidarity between diverse groups, overcome powerful interests, and create lasting change that benefits us all.

We are in an age of epic political turbulence in America. Old hierarchies and institutions are collapsing. From the election of Donald Trump to the upending of the major political parties to the spread of grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter and $15 Now, people across the country and across the political spectrum are reclaiming power.

Are you ready for this age of bottom-up citizen power? Do you understand what power truly is, how it flows, who has it, and how you can claim and exercise it?

Eric Liu, who has spent a career practicing and teaching civic power, lays out the answers in this incisive, inspiring, and provocative book. Using examples from the left and the right, past and present, he reveals the core laws of power. He shows that all of us can generate power-and then, step by step, he shows us how. The strategies of reform and revolution he lays out will help every reader make sense of our world today. If you want to be more than a spectator in this new era, you need to read this book.

A most nourishing and encouraging book McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker Manifesto and Capital is Dead

In many places worldwide, the freedom to care for one another is being attacked by the powerful, and acts of solidarity are being made illegal. In a moment of struggle defined by the rollback of the social safety net, the criminalization of migration, and the right-wing clampdown on bodily autonomy, radical networks of care are fighting back.

From volunteer rescue boats in the Mediterranean to underground labs preparing gender-affirming hormones, people are reclaiming the means to care for one another in defiance of a system that devalues and exploits the labor of care.

Against atomized despair, Pirate Care shows that fighting back isn't only about legal and legislative changes and organizing, direct action, and disobedient care.

Valeria Graziano is a cultural theorist and organizer who is researching militant practices of work refusal and repair. She co-founded the Carrotworkers Collective and Micropolitics Research Group. Marcell Mars is an advanced internet user. Tomislav Medak is a commons and disability activist and an independent researcher interested in technologies and environmental crisis. Mars and Medak are founding members of Multimedia Institute/Mama and custodians of the Memory of the World shadow library.

The authors are the convenors of the Pirate Care project.

Our problems are global and interconnected, and our solutions must be too. With over seventy contributors, Beautiful Solution spotlights the collective wisdom that reminds us that another world is not only possible, it's already under construction.

Everything we need to transform our communities already exists. From food sovereignty to debt abolition, from folk schools to energy democracy -- and from Argentina to Zimbabwe. If you long for a more beautiful, more just, and more livable world -- and want to know how to get there -- this book is for you.

In A World of Political Turmoil and Spiritual Confusion, Where Should You Stand?

In a world awash with voices claiming divine endorsement, many are led astray, lost in a sea of misinformation and doubt. The world is in turmoil and it's easy to feel lost. Countless believers are ensnared in a web of confusion--unsure about how to engage, vote, and pray in these tumultuous times.

How does God see your nation? What is He truly saying? And importantly, are you ready to listen?

Bestselling author and leading prophetic voice Emma Stark unveils a heavenly roadmap for those perplexed about how to pray, vote, and engage with the burning issues of our time. You're invited to shift beyond earthly solutions into a heavenly perspective where spiritual clarity reigns.

Through divine insights and years of experience, Emma reveals:

• The pivotal role that prophets play in molding society and guiding nations to their divine purpose.
• Insights into discerning the whispers of the Holy Spirit amidst the clamor of politics and governance.
• Practical strategies to sidestep Satan's traps and avoid mere temporal fixes for profound spiritual challenges.

This isn't just about the future of nations. It's a call to rise higher and aim beyond mere human strategies. This is about the legacy you will leave for the generations to come. Step into a prophetic perspective and become a transformative force for the Kingdom.

From the Co-Founder of the #BlackLivesMatter, a bold, innovative, and humanistic approach to being a modern-day abolitionist

In An Abolitionist's Handbook, New York Times bestselling author, artist, and activist Patrisse Cullors charts a framework for how everyday artists, activists, and organizers can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives, and real-life anecdotes from Cullors, An Abolitionist's Handbook asks us to lead with love, fierce compassion, and precision. Readers will learn the 12 steps to change yourself and the world.

An Abolitionist's Handbook is for those who are looking to reimagine a world where communities are treated with dignity, care and respect. It gives us permission to move away from cancel culture and into visioning change and healing.

From the author of Race After Technology, an inspiring vision of how we can build a more just world--one small change at a time

A true gift to our movements for justice.--Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Part memoir, part manifesto, Viral Justice is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day.

Vividly recounting her personal experiences and those of her family, Benjamin shows how seemingly minor decisions and habits could spread virally and have exponentially positive effects. She recounts her father's premature death, illuminating the devastating impact of the chronic stress of racism, but she also introduces us to community organizers who are fostering mutual aid and collective healing. Through her brother's experience with the criminal justice system, we see the trauma caused by policing practices and mass imprisonment, but we also witness family members finding strength as they come together to demand justice for their loved ones. And while her own challenges as a young mother reveal the vast inequities of our healthcare system, Benjamin also describes how the support of doulas and midwives can keep Black mothers and babies alive and well.

Born of a stubborn hopefulness, Viral Justice offers a passionate, inspiring, and practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming our relationships and communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world.