From the Publisher
An all-access pass to the populist insurrection brewing across the country.
Job outsourcing. Slashed paychecks. A war without end, fatally mismanaged. Americans on both the Right and Left are tired of being disenfranchised by corrupt politicians and are organizing to change the status quo. In his invigorating new book, David Sirota investigates this uprising, taking us into the trenches where real change is happening–in the headquarters of the most powerful third party in America, at an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting, and on the quasi-military staging area of a vigilante force on the Mexican border.
The Uprising is essential reading for anyone who wants to look beyond presidential politics at the new populism that is reshaping the American political landscape.
The Washington Post -
Michael Kazin
David Sirota, a 32-year-old progressive activist and journalist, spent a year on the road chronicling what he thinks are the stirrings of a mass revolt against the wealthy and the powerful. He may not have the Establishment quaking in its Guccis, but his always energetic, often ironic reporting certainly made the quest worthwhile…The Uprising is a hard book to dislike or dismiss. Sirota reports cleverly and in pleasing detail about a complex world of political conflict that the journalistic throng obsessed with presidential candidates and their handlers seldom notices.
Publishers Weekly
The signs are out there and Sirota believes they imply a forthcoming wide-ranging insurrection. From shifting politics in Montana's state government to the influence of a third political party in New York to the role and positioning of socialist senator Bernie Sanders, to the rise of a militia guarding the Mexican border; moments of dissent, resistance, and change are registering all over the United States. Sirota is quick to point out the more problematic and contradictory issues with these blips on the radar, but he also ably explains the significance of these events in relation to the larger picture. Lloyd James delivers a solid rendering of the text with a consistent tone that provides nuance and subtlety, especially in Sirota's more reflective moments. He provides some personality to characters but not much more than the text dictates, even when dealing with more well-known public figures. A Crown hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 28).
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Kirkus Reviews
The time to reclaim America has come, declares blogger and political columnist Sirota (Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government-and How We Take It Back, 2006). He starts at the 2006 YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas, then moves on to a dozen other places where people are "mad as hell" about the monied elite's domination of government. In Albany, Sirota zeroes in on the Working Families Party, which has exerted clout over Democratic politicians through a quirk in New York State's electoral system known as "fusion voting" (cross-endorsing another party's candidate), enabling disgruntled progressives to pull the WFP lever without throwing an election to a Republican. In Southern California, he spends an evening with the Minutemen who patrol the Mexican border looking for undocumented immigrants. This right-wing militia group, Sirota argues, shares the economic anxiety that motivates left-wing activism against corporate consolidation, outsourcing and tax cuts for the wealthy. In Washington, the author checks on two branches of antiwar activism: the anti-establishment "Protest Industry," a ragtag group largely outside the political system; and a bunch of insiders he calls The Players, who try to change that system from within. Sirota hopes to demonstrate that the ingredients for a cohesive populist movement are all around us, if only those who would benefit from the demise of the American political establishment would join forces and make it happen. He damages his case with too many wide-eyed, faux-naive asides-it's especially unconvincing when Sirota, a former Senate employee, is shocked to "discover" that lobbyists have massive influence over the Montana statelegislature. Winking bad-boy references (a hangover-induced vomiting spell halted by an epiphany that "it's all connected") don't enhance his credibility either. A disparate collection of tales about Americans fighting against the economic and political tide that Sirota never succeeds in drawing together to make a compelling case that the populist uprising is upon us. Agent: Will Lippincott/Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
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