Election Year: Inspirational Reading Before Voting

The following is from the Chelsea Green 2020 Spring Journal. It has been adapted for the web.

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Rules for Revolutionaries

Becky Bond and Zack Exley

A riveting behind-the-scenes look at how a small “distributed organizing” team operating on the fringes of the Bernie Sanders campaign was able to identify, recruit, train, and activate hundreds of thousands of volunteers. This book, called “vitally important” by Naomi Klein, is inspiring progressive campaigns around the globe.

Featured Excerpts:

There’s No Room for Politeness in Politics

You won’t have a revolution if you don’t ask for one. So, what are you waiting for?

“The way forward isn’t simply a matter of winning elections—though electing revolutionaries to office at all levels of government is some of the necessary work of the revolution. We need deep healing and transformation in every sphere of our society. This will require organic mass movements in neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions.” —Becky Bond and Zack Exley

The ALL NEW Don’t Think of An Elephant

George Lakoff

The definitive, international best-selling book on political debate and messaging, The ALL NEW Don’t Think of an Elephant dives deeper into how framing works, how framing has evolved in the past decades, how to counter propaganda and slogans, and more. Going beyond the typical laundry list of policies and programs, Lakoff presents a clear moral vision for the country and a guidepost for developing compassionate, effective policy that upholds citizens’ wellbeing and freedom.

“It is vital—for us, for our country, and for the world—that we stay united. It is our values that unite us. We must learn to articulate those values loud and clear.”  —George Lakoff

Doughnut Economics

Kate Raworth

Simple, playful, and eloquent, Doughnut Economics offers game-changing analysis and inspiration for a new generation of economic thinkers. The Guardian’s George Monbiot calls author Kate Raworth “brilliant, thrilling, and revolutionary” as she synthesizes the best emergent ideas—from ecological, feminist, and institutional economics to complexity thinking and Earth-systems science—to address a unique question: How can we turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow?

Featured Excerpts:

Radical Thinking for 21st-Century Economists

Seven Ways to Think Like a Twenty-First-Century Economist

“Inequality, it turns out, is not an economic necessity: it is a design failure. Twenty-first-century economists will recognize that there are many ways to design economies to be far more distributive of the value that they generate. It means going beyond redistributing income to exploring ways of redistributing wealth, particularly the wealth that lies in controlling land, enterprise, technology, knowledge and the power to create money.” —Kate Raworth

Mid-Course Correction Revisited

Ray C. Anderson and John A. Lanier

The definitive case study for sustainable business for the twenty-first century, Mid-Course Correction is the story of the legendary journey of industrialist Ray C. Anderson, who in 1994 set out to eliminate the negative impact his global flooring company, Interface, had on the environment. Now fully updated and expanded by Anderson’s grandson, John A. Lanier, MidCourse Correction Revisited includes a new foreword from Paul Hawken, new interviews with green business greats like Janine Benyus and Ellen MacArthur, and new thinking on reversing climate change—making it indispensable for business leaders aiming to succeed in the green economy. With both sage advice and concrete models, this fresh new look at a master in corporate and environmental leadership will inspire.

Featured Excerpts:

The Story and Legacy of a Radical Industrialist and his Quest for Authentic Change

A New Perspective on Our Climate

“The work of reversing global warming will be the sum total of millions and millions of choices, actions, and transformations that either pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or stop their emission into it. We will approach success person by person, company by company, and community by community.”  —John Lanier

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money

Woody Tasch

Envisioning an antidote to big agriculture and inspired in part by the slow food movement, author Woody Tasch presents a path for bringing money “back down to earth”—philosophically, pragmatically, and with an entrepreneurial spirit. Tasch believes we can create a sustainable food system if we are prepared to invest a percentage of our own money in local, sustainable, responsible agriculture. “Slow money is not for venture capitalists,” Tasch writes. “[It] is for nurture capitalists.”

Shut It Down

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