If We Burn
The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Ratings1
Average rating4
This book is phenomenal ... It's about as good as journalism gets ...The highest praise I can give If We Burn is to say that it would be criminally negligent not to read it if you'd like to change the world. - ROB DELANEY Bevins's clear-eyed, sympathetic account of the unfulfilled promise of these protests leaves his reader with a bold vision of the future. - MERVE EMREA stunning history of now. - GREG GRANDINFrom 2010 to 2020, more people took part in protests than at any other point in human history. Why has success been so elusive?From the so-called Arab Spring to Gezi Park in Turkey, from Ukraine's Euromaidan to student rebellions in Chile and Hong Kong, the second decade of the twenty-first century was propelled by explosive mass demonstrations. But few people got what they wanted. In too many cases, the protests led to the opposite of what they asked for.If We Burn is a stirring work of global history built around that strange but fundamental paradox. Acclaimed journalist Vincent Bevins interviewed hundreds of people around the world, and weaves their insights and recollections into a fast-paced, gripping narrative. We follow his own troubling experiences in Brazil, where a protest movement ignited by leftists and anarchists led to an extreme-right government that torched the Amazon.In the mass protest decade, humanity demonstrated a deep desire for change, and brave individuals started something that has been left unfinished. In this ground-breaking study of an extraordinary chain of events, protesters and major actors offer urgent lessons for those who wish to understand geopolitics today, and create a better world tomorrow.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book is about how those who do not represent themselves (as in people/movements who do not pick a representative/leader) will be represented whether they want to be or not and it uses the mass protest movements of the last decade as examples to make its point.
It doesn't really go too deep into why so many of the movements of the past decade have been rather leaderless (aside from the usual “leftist” tendency toward the inability to wield charisma) but I guess that's really a different question altogether.
As has been pointed out by other reviewers there's a fair amount of focus on Bevins' own experience and the places where he was when things happened, personally I rather enjoyed that. Overall it was a pleasant read if a rather discouraging one for me.
I loved this book. I also got to attend a talk by the author in Islington Mill - the man knows his shit! (predictably).
One of the more interesting bits to me were the ultras and hooligans. Growing up in the UK I knew about hooligans but really didn't appreciate how well organised and political they were - the Turkish ultras were particularly interesting!
In addition to the topic, the prose itself was also very engaging. I didn't suffer reading it (which I usually do with non-fiction).
Highly, highly recommend.
