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All Is Not Lost: 20 Ways to Revolutionize Disaster
An uplifting look at how organizers in the past have successfully leveraged crises into emancipatory politics, and a plea for continued progressive movement building in our tumultuous social climate
From the climate apocalypse and COVID-19 to double digit unemployment to Donald Trump and the rise of far-right white nationalists--disasters are everywhere we look.
While these disasters often leave us feeling hopeless and withdrawn, scholar Alex Zamalin argues that pessimism cannot be the only response. Silence and inaction only perpetuate mass suffering and inequality. Instead, All Is Not Lost suggests that following every crisis emerges new political opportunity for changing our politics and everyday lives.
Blending intellectual history, biography, and political critique, Zamalin offers 20 specific lessons for our present moment, turning to moments in history to demonstrate how various figures in the past have successfully leveraged struggles into sources of political action and freedom. The lessons--on how to resist, how to speak, organize, treat others, think politically, memorialize, dream, write, occupy, build, and act--all build toward one truth: though disaster is something we cannot control from arriving, we can control how we confront it and what we build in its place. Using examples from the 17th century to the present, All Is Not Lost reminds readers to not back down in the face of crisis and instead offers radical lessons of continued resistance and movement building to create a successful progressive coalition.
From the climate apocalypse and COVID-19 to double digit unemployment to Donald Trump and the rise of far-right white nationalists--disasters are everywhere we look.
While these disasters often leave us feeling hopeless and withdrawn, scholar Alex Zamalin argues that pessimism cannot be the only response. Silence and inaction only perpetuate mass suffering and inequality. Instead, All Is Not Lost suggests that following every crisis emerges new political opportunity for changing our politics and everyday lives.
Blending intellectual history, biography, and political critique, Zamalin offers 20 specific lessons for our present moment, turning to moments in history to demonstrate how various figures in the past have successfully leveraged struggles into sources of political action and freedom. The lessons--on how to resist, how to speak, organize, treat others, think politically, memorialize, dream, write, occupy, build, and act--all build toward one truth: though disaster is something we cannot control from arriving, we can control how we confront it and what we build in its place. Using examples from the 17th century to the present, All Is Not Lost reminds readers to not back down in the face of crisis and instead offers radical lessons of continued resistance and movement building to create a successful progressive coalition.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
Audio CD
Published September 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 11, 2022
I’m a republican and I think this book was made more for people that are for Democratic Parties. I did agree with some of the chapters and I like some of the chapter and I disliked some of the chapters but over all I really enjoyed the book
March 27, 2025
The book isn't useless per say- I liked the chapters on Emma Goldman and the Pullman strike and Woolman, its helpful to see what resistance strategies were historically successful. But this book is absolutely riddled with examples of activism that failed: occupy wallstreet, roe v wade womens protests, climate activists, Vietnam protests.
For a book that ends with the chapter titled "Think Historically", I have never rad anything so stuck in 2021/2022
Join me in laughing at a paragraph that has aged so badly, I have left this book with less hope than I had in the first place:
"Now that we're on the other side of the Trump presidency, it's the right time to reflect on the state of our nation. After years of being bombarded by media coverage of the Trump years as somehow being outside of history- his presidency was norm-breaking, unlike anything we've seen in modern history, and so on- we've become desensitized to the long view of things. We're never living through an unprecedented moment. This is the final lesson of this book. Think historically. And be vigilant about the presence of the past. It's there, even if you can't see it. Remember how, after COVID hit, many headlines were pushing the same narrative? The pandemic will change everything forever! We'll be living in a brave new world! There will be a new normal. Now ask yourself, today, how much, exactly, has fundamentally changed?"
For a book that ends with the chapter titled "Think Historically", I have never rad anything so stuck in 2021/2022
Join me in laughing at a paragraph that has aged so badly, I have left this book with less hope than I had in the first place:
"Now that we're on the other side of the Trump presidency, it's the right time to reflect on the state of our nation. After years of being bombarded by media coverage of the Trump years as somehow being outside of history- his presidency was norm-breaking, unlike anything we've seen in modern history, and so on- we've become desensitized to the long view of things. We're never living through an unprecedented moment. This is the final lesson of this book. Think historically. And be vigilant about the presence of the past. It's there, even if you can't see it. Remember how, after COVID hit, many headlines were pushing the same narrative? The pandemic will change everything forever! We'll be living in a brave new world! There will be a new normal. Now ask yourself, today, how much, exactly, has fundamentally changed?"
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December 26, 2023"Have faith that growing up is a worthwhile activity to be embraced, not a mindless chore to be tolerated."
"20 Examples" may be more accurate than "20 Ways", but Zamalin does provide a few options for what can be done in the future with some of said examples.
Zamalin chose to actively focus on optimism in response to private, public, large, and small disasters in this book. He occasional skirts around some of the consequences for actions, and many of his suggestions are only employable with a robust support structure, but there are some useful nuggets for perseverance instead of despair when things are dark. This isn't necessarily a direct guidebook, but it was a useful reminder that abandoning the effort to change things is not the answer.
Read for a dose of positivity in a world beset by tragedy, and I recommend it for people who often think "why bother to try" in response to actively supporting change. If you're already determined to actively pursue positive change this may feel like a shallow read to you - or you may feel it bolsters your attempts!
I may not be 100% behind everything in this book, and there is much in here that I would like to believe yet struggle to, but I am glad to have read it.
"20 Examples" may be more accurate than "20 Ways", but Zamalin does provide a few options for what can be done in the future with some of said examples.
Zamalin chose to actively focus on optimism in response to private, public, large, and small disasters in this book. He occasional skirts around some of the consequences for actions, and many of his suggestions are only employable with a robust support structure, but there are some useful nuggets for perseverance instead of despair when things are dark. This isn't necessarily a direct guidebook, but it was a useful reminder that abandoning the effort to change things is not the answer.
Read for a dose of positivity in a world beset by tragedy, and I recommend it for people who often think "why bother to try" in response to actively supporting change. If you're already determined to actively pursue positive change this may feel like a shallow read to you - or you may feel it bolsters your attempts!
I may not be 100% behind everything in this book, and there is much in here that I would like to believe yet struggle to, but I am glad to have read it.
November 9, 2024
This is more of a quick primer for the uninitiated than a how-to of any type. Anyone who has studied United States history, feminist theory, political movements, etc. will not find much new here.
Although written in 2022, after Trump's first term, the advice seems paltry compared to what we were up against. Now, in 2024, after Trump's second election win, the advice seems almost completely useless.
Although written in 2022, after Trump's first term, the advice seems paltry compared to what we were up against. Now, in 2024, after Trump's second election win, the advice seems almost completely useless.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews