Talking About a Revolution: Interviews with Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, bell hooks, Peter Kwong, Winona LaDuke, Manning Marable, Urvashi Vaid, and Howard Zinn

by The South End Press Collective (Editor), Howard Zinn, bell hooks

On its 20th anniversary, South End Press has gathered the Left's most prominent intellectuals for a wide-ranging discussion of the past 20 years and the next 20 years of progressive social movements in the United States.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Social Justice, Social Change

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Carol Bonigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book and I’m glad I read it. It’s a series of interviews with progressive and leftist thinkers, organizers, and activists. Predominately from the New Left movement of the 60s and 70s. These interviews were conducted at an interesting time in progressive movements (the mid-90s) which in the ebbs and flows of the movement born from the New Left this is about rock bottom for their movements. The progressive populism movements of the 21st century didn’t really start to take form till 2003. So, lots of reflecting on gains made, dreams dashed, and realistic look at moving forward. Reading it a quarter of a century later and after a true rebirth of some of these movements was very interesting.
I think liberal, progressive and leftists activists and organizers would benefit from reading these reflective interviews.
I do find Noam Chomsky to be the absolute worst of Leftist movements. The guys who want to flex mental superiority over you love to quote him and then will make some sexist ass “ironic” joke. Like DAFUQ.. are you in this movement to feel superior to others or for real change? Also, all their foreign policy hot takes tend to be regurgitating Chomsky’s hot takes. That’s been my experience with Chomsky Bros so I don’t overly engage Chomsky’s writings in general. Reading his interview I was like hmmm okay some interesting stuff, but like okay... I just don’t find him to be a visionary of any kind. Then two interviews later in bell hooks interview she defo had the biggest critics of the New Left and even critics Chomsky and said sure he has some interesting and can be enlightening, but has never never been open or pushed for an anti-patriarchal leftist movement. His take is still grounded in white men being the leaders of the movement. I think a lot of Chomsky Bros would benefit greatly by spending some time wirh bell hooks writing.
Winona Laduke’s section obviously focused on environmentalism and critics the white environmental movement and you see a lot of her critics really coming into focus for the broader movement in the last 5 years.
Good stuff. Highly recommend.
It’s a thinker.

[Aidan]

Picked this book up just for Howard Zinn honestly, but there were some great interviews. A lot of what was said was extremely informative and honestly fairly hopeful from 1998, and could even apply to today.

The best interviews:
bell hooks, Manning Marable, and Noam Chomsky

The good interviews:
Howard Zinn (sadly, I've just read better interviews with him), Peter Kwong (really interesting and didn't know much about what he was talking about), and Winona LaDuke (The surprise, probably the most thought provoking, her discussion of probably labeling herself as a conservative was interesting).

The okay interview:
Urvashi Vaid. She had me in the first half and made some great points about identity politics, but then she started arguing for a more human capitalism and she lost me.

The bad interviews:
Michael Albert (just felt like he didn't add anything, and overall weak interview). Barbara Ehrenreich (At times it almost felt like a "why I left the left" kind of interview, and it was more the framing then her actual stances. I agreed with a decent amount of what she said especially the idea that the Left has to recognize itself as a minority political group and build coalition and grassroots action, but parts of the interview were a slog and just right after the Chomsky interview lacked something).

[Alfonso Parada · Rating 2 out of 5]

just read the howard zinn interview

[Lola Petite · Rating 1 out of 5]

Noam is a child molester !! Not worth the purchase

[Lew Stanisława · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are rather old now, but great to see the US activisits from a time when not everything was absolutely fcked.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When people learn that more money is spent on prisons than education, that you could send a prisoner to Harvard for less money than it takes to incarcerate him or her, there is surprise, then understanding."

I didn't love the format of this book and I wish some of the questions were more in depth (the way this book is written provides a bio for each interviewee, but it also assumes that one is familiar with their work) but overall it shares some important thoughts.

I don't think this is the best of any work of any of the interviewees which is unfortunate, but I appreciate that this book is a platform to share their stances. Particularly the idea of the conservative party not actually being conservative if they don't consider the consequences of their actions and the idea that diversity should be implicit instead of everything being filtered through the lens of white men.

This book is a nice overview of a lot of people sharing their thoughts on various revolutions the US experienced.