The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
By: Gal Beckerman
3.80
Format: 352 pages, Hardcover
We tend to think of revolutions as frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas …
Want to Read $ 14.99"Phillip. the Dream Defenders founder, had a similar insight. For him, the experience of the Blackout had been a lesson in the varieties of power. Borrowing a concept from Joseph Nye, the political scientist, he now came to understand social media as a form of 'soft power,' a force that shapes culture through argument and story. But there was also 'hard power,' which Nye, in assessing the capacity of different nation-states, characterized as military and economic might. For movements, hard power was the ability to lobby for legislation, elect sympathetic political leaders, get resources allocated toward your cause. Social media, Phillip now saw more clearly, was good at building soft power. But when it came to hard power, it could do very little. And if for Nye every successful state needed a mix of the two, this was doubly true of social movements, which didn't stare with a store of either. The only way to built hard power was on the ground. As Rachel put it, 'You just can't shortcut organizing.' It made them want to stop the performance, the race for followers, even the reflex to always make their actions public-they would think carefully about if and when to use tactics like occupations and sit-ins."-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
"Phillip. the Dream Defenders founder, had a similar insight. For him, the experience of the Blackout had been a lesson in the varieties of power. Borrowing a concept from Joseph Nye, the political scientist, he now came to understand social media as a form of 'soft power,' a force that shapes culture through argument and story. But there was also 'hard power,' which Nye, in assessing the capacity of different nation-states, characterized as military and economic might. For movements, hard power was the ability to lobby for legislation, elect sympathetic political leaders, get resources allocated toward your cause. Social media, Phillip now saw more clearly, was good at building soft power. But when it came to hard power, it could do very little. And if for Nye every successful state needed a mix of the two, this was doubly true of social movements, which didn't stare with a store of either. The only way to built hard power was on the ground. As Rachel put it, 'You just can't shortcut organizing.' It made them want to stop the performance, the race for followers, even the reflex to always make their actions public-they would think carefully about if and when to use tactics like occupations and sit-ins."-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
"The seven core members also became more involved in local Minneapolis politics. Drawing attention at a national level had been the driving impetus of the earlier Black Lives Matter protests, which had relied on getting that hashtag to spike. Now it was clear that if their focal point was police funding, it would need to be a local effort, dependent on a partnership with the city council and the mayor's office, where these budgetary decisions were made. They would need to learn the mechanics and make some allies. This was organizing as it had long been done, and they got good at it. It was also, in a way, what separated Minneapolis from Cairo. Whereas the Middle East lacked a democratic or grassroots political tradition-and had no way to even imagining how to create one-this wasn't the case in America....But there was a long history of African American organizing that predated Silicon Galley. Miski and their friends got to know city council members and their aides, inundated them with research material, visited their offices, and maybe most important, brought people out to hearings when the budget was being discussed, arguing in forum after forum against the belief that all the police needed were a few more bodycams. All this happened without much fanfare and largely off-line."-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
"The seven core members also became more involved in local Minneapolis politics. Drawing attention at a national level had been the driving impetus of the earlier Black Lives Matter protests, which had relied on getting that hashtag to spike. Now it was clear that if their focal point was police funding, it would need to be a local effort, dependent on a partnership with the city council and the mayor's office, where these budgetary decisions were made. They would need to learn the mechanics and make some allies. This was organizing as it had long been done, and they got good at it. It was also, in a way, what separated Minneapolis from Cairo. Whereas the Middle East lacked a democratic or grassroots political tradition-and had no way to even imagining how to create one-this wasn't the case in America....But there was a long history of African American organizing that predated Silicon Galley. Miski and their friends got to know city council members and their aides, inundated them with research material, visited their offices, and maybe most important, brought people out to hearings when the budget was being discussed, arguing in forum after forum against the belief that all the police needed were a few more bodycams. All this happened without much fanfare and largely off-line."-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
If you liked the politics plot in The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman , here is a list of 12 books like this:
1. An Autobiography
By: Angela Y. Davis
4.44
Format: 416 pages, Paperback
Her own powerful story up to 1972, told with warmth, brilliance, humor and conviction. With an intr… read more
Want to Read $ 16.79Similar categories in Angela Y. Davis's An Autobiography book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
- social justice
- history
- nonfiction
"I sank deep into the moment, husbanding this delight, hoarding it. For I knew it would be short-lived. Work. Struggle. Confrontation lay before us like a rock-strewn road. We would walk it ... But fi…"-Angela Y. Davis, An Autobiography
"This Booker T. Washington syndrome permeated every aspect of the education I received in Birmingham. Work hard and you will be rewarded. A corollary of this principle was that the road would be harde…"-Angela Y. Davis, An Autobiography
2. The Age of Reason Begins (The Story of Civilization, #7)
By: Will Durant , Ariel Durant
3.71
Format: 656 pages, Hardcover
If there is a linchpin to understanding modern European history, it lies in the period of religious… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Will Durant's The Age of Reason Begins (The Story of Civilization, #7) book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
3. The Day of the Locust
By: Nathanael West , Alfred Kazin
3.85
Format: 208 pages, Paperback
The Day of the Locustis a novel about Hollywood and its corrupting touch, about the American dream … read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
4. The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World
By: Sharon Brous
4.54
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
From one of our country’s most prominent rabbis, an inspiring book about the power of community bas… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Sharon Brous's The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- philosophy
- nonfiction
5. The Lost Cause
By: Cory Doctorow
3.65
Format: 368 pages, Hardcover
It's thirty years from now and we're making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely.… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Cory Doctorow's The Lost Cause book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
6. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
By: Cal Newport
3.73
Format: 244 pages, Hardcover
Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. From the New York Times bestsellin… read more
Want to Read $ 15.99Similar categories in Cal Newport's Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- philosophy
- nonfiction
"What are we really doing here?"-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
"Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job like that where you didn’t have to worry about being productive?"-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
"The world of cognitive work lacks coherent ideas about how our efforts should be organized and measured."-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
"The pandemic didn’t introduce this trend so much as push its worst excesses beyond the threshold of tolerability."-Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
7. Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me
By: Ada Calhoun
4.02
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A staggering memoir from New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relation… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Ada Calhoun's Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- nonfiction
8. Parade
By: Rachel Cusk
3.70
Format: 198 pages, Hardcover
From the exhilarating mind of Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy, Parade disturbs and defin… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Parade book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
"He knew that [his work] embodied change, and he wasn’t interested in change. He was interested in the fragments that change leaves behind in its storming passage toward the future."-Rachel Cusk, Parade
"Not to be understood is effectively to be silenced, but not understanding can in its turn legitimise that silence, can illuminate one’s own unknowability. Art is the pact of individuals denying socie…"-Rachel Cusk, Parade
"Sanity and insanity were not opposites but rather were the two faces of inanimate matter, the point at which the existence of consciousness can get no further in breaking down the existence of substa…"-Rachel Cusk, Parade
"The impulse to have a child is very often a response to the woman’s own childhood, as though her childhood has left her incomplete, or has taken a part of her that she is driven to find again. The st…"-Rachel Cusk, Parade
9. The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
By: Daniel Yergin
4.20
Format: 512 pages, Hardcover
A Wall Street Journal besteller and a USA Today Best Book of 2020 Named Energy Writer of the Yea… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Daniel Yergin's The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
"У 1976 в газеті "Вечірній Ленінград" з'явилася стаття про досі невідомого дзюдоїста, що переміг у змаганнях і здобув звання чемпіона. "Люди ще почують про нього в майбутньому", передбачало видання. Т…"-Daniel Yergin, The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
10. Huaco retrato
By: Gabriela Wiener
3.89
Format: 170 pages, Paperback
La muerte de su padre y los fantasmas de su herencia marcan el retorno de Wiener con esta exploraci… read more
Want to Read $ 7.99Similar categories in Gabriela Wiener's Huaco retrato book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- nonfiction
11. Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future
By: Ian Johnson
4.40
Format: 400 pages, Hardcover
Using history to challenge Communist Party rule. China's Underground Historians and their Battl… read more
Want to Read $ 14.49Similar categories in Ian Johnson's Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- historical
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
12. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
By: Francis Fukuyama
3.85
Format: 240 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examin… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Francis Fukuyama's Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- cultural
- history
- politics
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- sociology
"Who am I, really?"-Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
"The focus on lived experience by identity groups valorizes inner selves experienced emotionally rather than examined rationally. Notes one observer, “Our political culture is marked, at the micro lev…"-Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
"Confusion over identity arises as a condition of living in the modern world. Modernization means constant change and disruption, and the opening up of choices that did not exist before. It is mobile,…"-Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
"But as important as material self-interest is, human beings are motivated by other things as well, motives that better explain the disparate events of the present. This might be called the politics o…"-Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
13. The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens
By: Richard N. Haass
4.15
Format: 240 pages, Kindle Edition
A New York Times Bestseller A provocative guide to how we must reenvision citizenship if Americ… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Richard N. Haass's The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
- sociology
14. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World
By: Otto English
3.76
Format: 257 pages, Kindle Edition
A fun, authoritative and alternative history of the world that exposes some of the biggest lies eve… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Otto English's Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- history
- world history
- historical
- politics
- nonfiction
15. Frozen (Vera Stanhope, #8.5)
By: Ann Cleeves
3.80
Format: 22 pages, Kindle Edition
As New York Times bestseller Ann Cleeves' popularity explodes in print and on TV, this gripping e-s… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Ann Cleeves's Frozen (Vera Stanhope, #8.5) book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
16. Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge
By: Richard Ovenden
3.72
Format: 308 pages, Hardcover
The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful d… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Richard Ovenden's Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- history
- world history
- historical
- politics
- philosophy
- nonfiction
17. The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump
By: Alexander Ward
3.96
Format: 368 pages, Hardcover
The inside story of Biden’s foreign policy team and their struggle to restore America’s global infl… read more
Want to Read $ 16.99Similar categories in Alexander Ward's The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
18. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
By: John Ganz
4.23
Format: 432 pages, Hardcover
A lively, revelatory look back at the convulsions at the end of the Reagan era―and their dark legac… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in John Ganz's When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- cultural
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
19. Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
By: Michael Taylor
4.24
Format: 496 pages, Hardcover
“Vivid with a Mesozoic bestiary” (Tom Holland), this on-the-ground, page-turning narrative weaves t… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Michael Taylor's Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- nonfiction
- history
20. The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
By: Gal Beckerman
3.80
Format: 352 pages, Hardcover
We tend to think of revolutions as frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- cultural
- history
- world history
- historical
- politics
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- social justice
- activism
- sociology
"Phillip. the Dream Defenders founder, had a similar insight. For him, the experience of the Blackout had been a lesson in the varieties of power. Borrowing a concept from Joseph Nye, the political sc…"-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
"The seven core members also became more involved in local Minneapolis politics. Drawing attention at a national level had been the driving impetus of the earlier Black Lives Matter protests, which ha…"-Gal Beckerman, The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
21. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics
By: Elle Reeve
4.27
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
This tour de force of investigative journalism—in the vein of The Next Civil War and Why We’re Pola… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Elle Reeve's Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics book and Gal Beckerman's The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- politics
- history
- nonfiction
- sociology
