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Talking About a Revolution

Interviews with Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, bell hooks, Peter Kwong, Winona LaDuke, Manning Marable, Urvashi Vaid, and Howard Zinn

Edited by South End Press Collective

Boston: South End Press, 1998
131 pp., $14.00, paper
ISBN: 0-89608-588-2

I carried this book around with me for a week before I read any of it. Maybe it was the stark black cover or the list of prominent critical thinkers that put me off. I think I was afraid that the "talk about a revolution" was going to focus on what is easy to see all around us — just how far away from a revolution we really are. But I finished the book in an afternoon, invigorated by the direct language and conversational tone of the interviews and by the hope and vision expressed in each chapter. The South End Press Collective members posed questions to their subjects on the themes of finding common ground among progressives, choosing significant achievements of progressive movements, evaluating the next generation of activists, and creating visions that will galvanize future social change.

Because the interviewers unobtrusively direct and shape each conversation, we get views of these authors not often seen. Noam Chomsky explains why he regards himself as a "parasite," and he reflects on his first radical action at age ten. Barbara Ehrenreich gets to the heart of her topic with a sports analogy. Winona LaDuke explains why she's a conservative. Howard Zinn and bell hooks discuss their passion for plays and literature. The interview with Manning Marable is a high point of the book. South End editors ask direct questions about the development of Marable's politics, giving the author an opportunity to use his life story to explain his views of black progressive movements, from the League of Revolutionary Black Workers to the Rainbow Coalition. Talking About a Revolution contains flashes of brilliance, as when a question leads the interview subject outside the bounds of the intellectual self to talk about his or her personal life, revealing how experience connects to politics.

Talking About a Revolution makes nine diverse American intellectuals and their ideas accessible and understood, and it emphasizes the value of passing on lessons to a new generation. The editors intelligently dig beneath the surface of issues of common ground, class and race, and identity politics, moving beyond facile generalizations to sketch a vision of a future worth fighting for. This little book shows our best face, presenting a range of brilliant thinkers and tireless activists at their most human - accessible, generous, humble, and warm - a strong reminder that our politics need to include the head and the heart in equal measure.

Reviewed by Sonya Huber

Available from:
South End Press
116 S. Botolph St.
Boston, MA 02115

Sonya Huber is associate publisher of In These Times.
Her essay on activism appeared in the last issue of THE WORKBOOK.

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