The fascinating history of a decade aflameand what we can learn from its embers.
Disturbing and exhilarating. New Yorker
From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. Acclaimed journalist Vincent Bevins carried out hundreds of interviews around the world, guided by a single, puzzling question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?
The result is a stirring work of history that connects events in a dozen countries and reveals that conventional wisdom on revolutionary change is gravely misguided. From the so-called Arab Spring to Gezi Park in Turkey, from Ukraines Euromaidan to student rebellions in Chile and Hong Kong, Bevins provides a blow-by-blow account of street movements and their consequences, recounted in gripping detail.
In this groundbreaking study of an extraordinary chain of events, protesters and major actors look back on successes and defeats, offering urgent lessons for the future.
Vincent Bevinsis an award-winning journalist. He covered Southeast Asia for theWashington Postafter serving as the Brazil correspondent for theLos Angeles Times. Bevins previously worked for theFinancial Timesand now contributes to outlets like theNew York Times Magazineand theLondon Review of Books.His first book,The Jakarta Method, came out in 2020.
Named a Best Book of the Year by
The New Republic,
Verso, the
Journal of Democracy, and the
New Zealand Listener. “If you have ever marched for something and lost, you should read Vincent Bevins’s
If We Burn….Disturbing and exhilarating.”
New Yorker, "Books to Read During Trump 2.0"“A remarkable new history… For a full l£ž
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