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Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change
A novel and scientific approach to creating transformative social change—and the surprising ways that each of us can help make a real difference.
Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from our collective laws, economies, history, culture, norms, and built environments. The dilemma is that there is no way to make structural change without individual people making different—more structure-facing—decisions. In Somebody Should Do Something, Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly show us how we can connect our personal choices to structural change and why individual choices matter, though not in the way people usually think.
The authors paint a new picture of how social change happens, arguing that our most powerful personal choices are those that springboard us into working together with others—warehouse worker Chris Smalls’s unionization at Amazon is one powerful example. Taking inspiration from the writer Bill McKibben, they stress how one “important thing an individual can do is be somewhat less of an individual.”
Organized into three main parts, the book first diagnoses the problem of “either/or” thinking about social change, which stems from the false choice of making better personal choices or changing the system. Then it offers a different way to think about social change, anchored in a new picture of human nature emerging across the social sciences. Finally, the authors explore ways of putting this picture into practice. Neither a how-to manual nor an activist’s guide, Somebody Should Do Something pairs stories with science (plus some jokes) to help readers recognize their own power, turning resignation about climate change and racial injustice into actions that transform the world.
Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from our collective laws, economies, history, culture, norms, and built environments. The dilemma is that there is no way to make structural change without individual people making different—more structure-facing—decisions. In Somebody Should Do Something, Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly show us how we can connect our personal choices to structural change and why individual choices matter, though not in the way people usually think.
The authors paint a new picture of how social change happens, arguing that our most powerful personal choices are those that springboard us into working together with others—warehouse worker Chris Smalls’s unionization at Amazon is one powerful example. Taking inspiration from the writer Bill McKibben, they stress how one “important thing an individual can do is be somewhat less of an individual.”
Organized into three main parts, the book first diagnoses the problem of “either/or” thinking about social change, which stems from the false choice of making better personal choices or changing the system. Then it offers a different way to think about social change, anchored in a new picture of human nature emerging across the social sciences. Finally, the authors explore ways of putting this picture into practice. Neither a how-to manual nor an activist’s guide, Somebody Should Do Something pairs stories with science (plus some jokes) to help readers recognize their own power, turning resignation about climate change and racial injustice into actions that transform the world.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2025
36 people are currently reading
3478 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2025
Worth paging through. If you read a fair amount of early to mid 2020s books in this vein there’s overlap. It’s informative and thought-provoking. The text is only 200 pages and the rest is notes so it’s not cumbersome in terms of length.
September 17, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. With rich examples in the recent and distant past, the authors develop a novel theory of how social change occurs through the interaction of individual choices and systems, whether we're talking about the reduction in cigarette smoking or the expansion of gay rights. The authors are admirably honest about the limitations of attempts to engineer moral progress, either through grassroots movements or technocratic manipulation of social arrangements. By drawing on scientific research and detailed examples, the book demonstrates that social change is complicated but can be promoted through a better understanding of human psychology and sociality.
December 28, 2025
3.8
Feels more like a collection of ideas loosely organized under the umbrella of “both/and” reframing of the classic (and as the authors show, false) dilemma between individual action and systemic change. A lot of good ideas, but a lot of them are repackaged old ideas. I felt like I needed a better final takeaway in the form of some more concrete “big ideas.”
Feels more like a collection of ideas loosely organized under the umbrella of “both/and” reframing of the classic (and as the authors show, false) dilemma between individual action and systemic change. A lot of good ideas, but a lot of them are repackaged old ideas. I felt like I needed a better final takeaway in the form of some more concrete “big ideas.”
December 22, 2025
Some parts were interesting but some seemed irrelevant. Too US-centric.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews