Social Change

Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation.

Marshall Ganz is one of the world’s leading authorities on democratic leadership, organizing, and action and this book is the culmination of his decades of teaching, research, and practice. In People, Power, Change Ganz offers students, educators, and organizers access to the craft he has learned, adapted, and shared over the last half-century of creating effective collective action. It is not a blueprint, but a road map.

To engage in social change at this moment in time requires consistent attention, deep reflection, and committed collective action. Social Change Now is a powerful roadmap for individuals and organizations who are ready to deepen their commitment to social justice from racial justice advocate Deepa Iyer.

Rebecca Solnit offers a thrilling account of the sheer breadth and scale of social, political, scientific, and cultural change over the past three quarters of a century. In this sequel to her enduring bestseller Hope in the Dark, Solnit surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability.

FOUR STEPS TO LASTING HAPPINESS You are four steps away from creating the life of your dreams. The best part? You already have everything you need. In Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life, authors Taylor and Dr. James Grant detail a proven process to unlock the power within you. It’s a simple, four-step framework. You will clear yourself of negativity, address your issues with authenticity, clarify your intentions, and watch your circumstances change for the better. With real-life examples from professional and personal settings, the authors break down the four steps into manageable, ...

Over the past few years, Brianna Wiest has gained renown for her deeply moving, philosophical writing. This new compilation of her published work features pieces on why you should pursue purpose over passion, embrace negative thinking, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. Some of these pieces have never been seen; others have been read by millions of people around the world. Regardless, each will leave you thinking: This idea changed my life.

In Covert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O’Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on covert cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O’Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene. Covert Regime Change assembles an original dataset of all American regime change operations during the Cold War. This fund of information shows the United States was 10 times more likely to try covert rather than overt regime change during the Cold War.

Making change starts with believing you can. Burnout. Decreased funding. Structural barriers. A lack of hope. Social changemakers and non-profit leaders who want to make meaningful, measurable impact in their communities are struggling to see a brighter future for themselves, their teams, and the people they serve. Yet real change happens by believing in a better world and consistently taking the next step toward making it a reality.

Why do some changes occur, and others don't? What are the factors that drive successful social and environmental movements, while others falter? How Change Happens examines the leadership approaches, campaign strategies, and ground-level tactics employed in a range of modern social change campaigns. The book explores successful movements that have achieved phenomenal impact since the 1980s—tobacco control, gun rights expansion, LGBT marriage equality, and acid rain elimination.

Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from our collective practices: laws, economies, history, culture, norms, and built environments. The dilemma is that there is no way to make structural change without individual people making different—more structure-facing—decisions.

From New York Times bestselling author, feminist pioneer, and cultural icon bell hooks, an evergreen treatise on how patriarchy and toxic masculinity hurts us all. Feminist writing did not tell us about the deep inner misery of men. Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But to...

Less freedom. More regulation. Higher costs. Make no mistake: those are the surefire consequences of the modern global warming campaign waged by political and cultural elites, who have long ago abandoned fact-based science for dramatic fearmongering in order to push increased central planning. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change gives a voice - backed by statistics, real-life stories, and incontrovertible evidence - to the millions of "deplorable" Americans skeptical about the multibillion dollar "climate change" complex, whose claims have time and time again been proven wrong.

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.

Are we deranged? The acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well think so. How else to explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming? In his first major book of nonfiction since In an Antique Land, Ghosh examines our inability - at the level of literature, history, and politics - to grasp the scale and violence of climate change.

If “change” is the mantra of our moment in history, Social Change 2.0 may be poised to become its bible. Drawing on his three decades in the trenches of large-scale societal transformation, David Gershon—described by the United Nations as a “graceful revolutionary”—offers an original and comprehensive roadmap to bring about fundamental change in our world.

In the 1960s Ram Dass was a Harvard professor who turned to Eastern religion to answer the questions troubling his generation. He shared his story in the landmark classic, Be Here Now, which instantly captured the spiritual longings of his contemporaries. In Still Here, Ram Dass once again brings understanding, common sense, and reassurance for those of us facing the final season of life.

How to create the change you want to see in the world using the paradigm-busting ideas in this brilliant big-idea book.​ "Utterly fascinating." —Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and bestselling author of Think Again Most of what we know about how ideas spread comes from bestselling...

How do social movements arise, wield power, and decline? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates these questions in a groundbreaking work, narrating the stories of many of America's most influential twentieth-century social movements. Beginning with the turn-of-the-century settlement house movement, Gordon then scrutinizes the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and its successors, the violent American fascist groups of the 1930s.

An energizing case for hope about the climate comes from Rebecca Solnit, called “the voice of the resistance” by the New York Times, and climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua, along with a chorus of voices calling on us to rise to the moment. Not Too Late is the book for anyone who is despondent, defeatist, or unsure about climate change and seeking answers. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the future will be decided by whether we act in the present—and we must act to counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political obduracy. T

From a former contributing editor at Runner’s World, a narrative-driven prescriptive book on reckoning with the end of an athletic journey—and what comes next. On January 18, 2020, Dimity McDowell unknowingly went on her last run. The deceleration of her running career began three years...