Direct Action

It is impossible to overstate the importance of this book. Chances are that even if you know something about the recent history of the left in America, you probably only know a few isolated parts. L.A. Kauffman has connected a vast field of dots to create an overview, and she has done so with dispatch, clarity, and elegance. Her book is essential reading for today, and will be for tomorrow. -Luc Sante, author of The Other Paris A movement tour de force. A must-read for those who have committed themselves to the life of the mind and of struggle. -Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, theologian and organizer As the new political reality settles in, resisters are asking a follow-up question: What else can I do? L.A. Kauffman's new book Direct Action provides some answers. -Maya Singer, Vogue L.A. Kauffman may have the best-timed book release in years. - The Atlantic In Direct Action , L.A. Kauffman assesses movements of the past half century not as scattered uprisings but as phases of an overarching project ... Our current radical-action culture, she thinks, really started in the early seventies, when a new generation of green shoots rose up from the ash. -Nathan Heller, New Yorker If direct action is 'a laboratory for political experimentation and innovation,' as Kauffman argues in the introduction, then this is the lab report. - Vice You could not ask for a better guide through recent social movement history than L.A. Kauffman. A champion of radical causes with decades of experience on the front lines of civil disobedience, she chronicles the fascinating evolution of a set of protest tactics today's activists take for granted. Kauffman has done a tremendous public service: by helping us better understand the past, in all its glory and folly, we can be more effective dissidents and rabble-rousers tomorrow. This startling, inspiring book is for anyone who has ever felt the urge to put their body on the line and shut things down for something they believe in. -Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform and co-founder of the Debt Collective The lurid circus sideshow has seized center ring in Washington, making direct action by progressive agitators all across the country more essential than ever. Don't agonize, organize! How to do it? Kauffman's powerful book, drawing on our people's recent history, shows the way to create true justice for all. - Jim Hightower, author and activist Kauffman, an important and experienced organizer, senses in Occupy, Black Lives Matter and perhaps even the Bernie Sanders campaign new political oxygen, locally-based movements that cannot be effectively controlled or easily squashed. -Paul Buhle, Socialism and Democracy