Sarah Jaffe - Necessary Trouble

Table of Contents

Praise for

NECESSARY TROUBLE

Necessary Trouble is American history at its freshest and most compelling. Sarah Jaffe traces the many waysfrom left to rightthat Americans have risen up in response to the countrys ongoing takeover by the obscenely rich. Sometimes we have to make trouble, and, as Jaffe reports, were pretty damn good at it!

BARBARA EHRENREICH, author of Nickel and Dimed

History is filled with stories of rebellionand not just history, as Sarah Jaffe shows. What weve too often lacked are reporters willing and able to weave one-day stories into meaningful fabric. Jaffe does just that, with depth and breadth and eloquence. Necessary Trouble is necessary reading, and Jaffes arrival is something to celebrate.

LAURA FLANDERS, host and founder of The Laura Flanders Show

Like Boadicea leading the Celts against the Romans or Joan of Arc breaking the siege of Orleans, Sarah Jaffe marches into the class war, fighting the good fight with a pen as sharp as any sword.

BILL MOYERS

The political activism and beliefs of ordinary Americans are as ignored as they are consequential. Sarah Jaffe is one of the few American journalists who has meaningfully covered this vital, growing forceinvariably with passion, empathy, and unflinching insight. Her new book is indispensable for understanding how marginalized and resource-deprived communities are politically empowering themselves in ways that will fundamentally shape Americas future.

GLENN GREENWALD, author of No Place to Hide

Declarations of democracys demise are greatly exaggerated. Democracy has been in bloom since the 2008 economic crisis, flowering in the Occupy movement, in the Souths Moral Mondays, in the BlackLivesMatter movement and the Fight for $15, in the streets and halls of government in Chicago and Detroit, Seattle and St. Louis. While commercial media cant seem to turn away from the Trump circus or Hillarys e-mails, Sarah Jaffe follows Americas new radicals. And in doing so, tells a far more consequential storyone that reveals our recent past and an alternative future. The most compelling social and political portrait of our age, Necessary Trouble should be mandatory for anyone who thinks justice is necessary.

ROBIN D. G. KELLEY, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Sarah Jaffe has written a wise and eloquent book about the surging movements against inequality that are giving the one percent a run for its money. If you want to understand the present and future of the American left, you must read Necessary Trouble.

MICHAEL KAZIN, coeditor of Dissent and author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 19141918

Sarah Jaffe draws on her journalistic experience and talent to give us a vivid portrait of the contemporary protest movements that just may transform America.

FRANCES FOX PIVEN, author of Challenging Authority

Sarah Jaffes book tells the story of the giant step made by Americas networked young people off the sidelines of progressive politics and into the foreground. It weaves together the story of radicalized labor activism, black protests against police violence, and the horizontalist movements. These are the stories the millennial generation will tell their grandchildrenabout how they reversed the balance between the citizen and corporate power, and saved the planet.

PAUL MASON, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

What kind of troublemaker is Sarah Jaffe? The Tom Paine, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Upton Sinclair muckraking, radical kind. She identifies the issues that must be addressed and then finds the rebels and rabble-rousers, agitators and change makers who are doing the addressing. She amplifies their voices with a power that demands an immediate response to the age-old question: Which side are you on? Im ready with my answer: If Sarah Jaffe says its time to fight, Im in.

JOHN NICHOLS, author of People Get Ready

Necessary Trouble is an engaging and insightful guide to the new American radicalism that erupted in the wake of the Great Recession. Jaffe deftly exposes the roots of antiestablishment activism across the political spectrum, from the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, the BlackLivesMatter movement, and the Fight for $15. A must-read for anyone interested in the nations future.

RUTH MILKMAN, president, American Sociological Association, and author of On Gender, Labor and Inequality

Americans can be a quiescent people. But for the past eight years, we have been in revoltconsider #BlackLivesMatter, Moral Mondays, the Fight for $15, Occupy, the Bernie Sanders campaign, fights to save the public sector in Wisconsin and Chicago, and many more insurgencies. Yet few journalists have properly chronicled this moment, much less explained how and why such efforts came about, or analyzed their relation to one another. In this whip-smart, informative, and inspiring book, Sarah Jaffe has done all that and much more: she has also summoned us to join in and make history. We must heed her!

LIZA FEATHERSTONE, author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers Rights at Walmart

Without a doubt, Sarah Jaffe is the preeminent social movement chronicler of her generation. Cutting through the hype, she finds the unsung heroes and tells the real story of how change happens. Mixing razor-sharp analysis with moving reports from the front lines, Necessary Trouble reveals the interconnections, complexities, and possibilities of nearly a decade of radical uprisings. Read this book nowand then join the revolt.

ASTRA TAYLOR, author of The Peoples Platform and cofounder of The Debt Collective

Sarah paints a clear picture of the very real inequalities facing working people today, as well as the anger, energy, and optimism that is fueling movements and activism across the county. From Occupy Wall Street to BlackLivesMatter, this book proves that there is incredible power when people come together to take back the power that belongs to them and change the rules so everyday people can win.

SARITA GUPTA, Jobs with Justice

Copyright 2016 by Sarah Jaffe

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Designed by Linda Mark

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jaffe, Sarah, 1980 author.