Ordinatore quiet before the storm1/29/2024 This book was a bit different than what I had expected. Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. While the examples and the larger purpose is societal, the basic idea of formulating a better theoretical foundation through debate and discussion holds true for small "movements" one might want to generate in their communities or workplaces. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in how to make change. Pretty straightforward purpose and approach. Either way, the book argues for and offers ideas for creating the space for the thought and debates necessary for movements to succeed and uses the historical examples to illustrate that without that space the movements would either never come to be or would quickly fail. If a reader loses focus I'd say it has to do with their ability to stay focused rather than the book, or maybe being a passive reader with a short memory span. This book makes its goal pretty clear in the introduction and stays focused throughout. That is what is missing for many more recent movements which tend to peak quickly and then subside, with little actual long-term change. It takes a safe place and form for opinions and ideas to be expressed freely. These can't be done in an openly public forum, particularly when the preferred form of communication is short and hyperbolic. It takes input from others, the application of other perspectives, and an understanding of what might make change possible. Ideas, even the best, are rarely if ever formed in a complete and nuanced manner immediately. Through recreating the groundswell in several historical movements Beckerman shows the value and importance of having a way for ideas to be debated, modified, and shared. This book is less about slow versus fast than it is about developed versus underdeveloped. The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman is a compelling argument for creating space for ideas to develop and grow, especially in today's world of instant reaction and often overreaction. Lyrical and profound, The Quiet Before looks to the past to help us imagine a different future. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart? Why did Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential? Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem lacks-everything from patience to focus-and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again. In each case, Beckerman shows that our most defining social movements-from decolonization to feminism-were formed in quiet, closed networks that allowed a small group to incubate their ideas before broadcasting them widely.īut Facebook and Twitter are replacing these productive, private spaces, to the detriment of activists around the world. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, takes us back to the seventeenth century, to the correspondence that jump-started the scientific revolution, and then forward through time to examine engines of social the petitions that secured the right to vote in 1830s Britain, the zines that gave voice to women’s rage in the early 1990s, and even the messaging apps used by epidemiologists fighting the pandemic in the shadow of an inept administration. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that-in a world dominated by social media-they might soon go extinct. But the ideas fueling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate about how to achieve their goals. We tend to think of revolutions as frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. “A bravura work of scholarship and reporting, featuring amazing individuals and dramatic events from seventeenth-century France to Rome, Moscow, Cairo, and contemporary Minneapolis.”-Louis Menand, author of The Free World An “elegantly argued and exuberantly narrated” ( The New York Times Book Review ) look at the building of social movements-from the 1600s to the present-and how current technology is undermining them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |