Now, the People! - by Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Hardcover)

About the Book

Original title: "Faites mieux! Vers la Râevolution citoyenne."

Book Synopsis

A major investigation of the possibility of a new type of revolution in our epoch by the leader of the French radical left

In summer 2024, France stood on the brink of a far-right takeover. But the disaster was avoided thanks to a New Popular Front of parties headed by long-standing left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. It won the most seats in the snap parliamentary elections, running on a radical, progressive, inclusive agenda, in large part inspired by Mélenchon's presidential programme. Now, the People! details his vision of revolution in our time.

In this book, Mélenchon embarks on a survey of human history from its earliest moments to the crisis-ridden present. He outlines his vision for a new strategy for radical parties to reach the highest levels of government and peacefully transform the capitalist system: a citizens' revolution.

In this revolution, individuals come together to form a single, politically mobilised people. They assert their power over the collective conditions of urbanised life, against the oligarchy that still controls them.

Review Quotes

"France's far-left firebrand"
--New York Times

"France's Bernie Sanders"
--Washington Post

"A gifted orator and debater, Mélenchon is the most successful recent vote-winner for the left"
--Financial Times

"The leftist philosopher-orator Mélenchon is famous for his firebrand speeches"
--Guardian

"Mélenchon has a knack for improvisation on the campaign trail and appears at ease when he veers into unchartered territory. Even his fiercest critics acknowledge he's an excellent orator: Mélenchon has a booming voice, an excellent sense of pace, a depth of historical and literary references at his disposal, and a masterful command of language - including an ability to deliver pithy one-liners against his foes"
--Nation

"This is not a book by a politician like the others (neither the politician nor the book). It is not just another 'what I believe', nor a programme, but a compilation of concrete and theoretical reflections on the world as it is and as it should be. In many ways, Now, the People! is a little treatise for the new revolutionary."
--Libération

"It is as a "people's tribune" that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is proposing "a global deciphering", in order to understand why and how, now that the world has become "unsustainable", we need to move towards a "change of civilisation"."
--Le Monde diplomatique

"His pages on the importance of cities and networks in raising political awareness, on the eruption of the gilets jaunes, the movement against pension reform and the revolt in the neighbourhoods that would herald the "citizens' revolution", or his plea for "alterglobalist diplomacy", will inevitably generate controversy. We hope that they will rise to the level of the arguments presented here."
--Politis

"Jean Luc Mélenchon is not just a great politician who has reinvented the French left and given it incredible strength. He is also an original and visionary theorist who, like Jean Jaurès, thinks politics through as much as he engages in it."
--Edouard Louis, author of Change: A Novel

"Hoberman's cultural history is a thorough account of the New York underground, complete with rich, minute details about what the city once was."
--The Millions

"Mélenchon, a leader of the French radical left once described by the Washington Post as "France's Bernie Sanders," proposes a new kind of revolution against capitalism suited for our present moment--what he calls "a citizen's revolution."
--The Millions

"A paean to people power, carrying its readers from the earliest human societies to the fractured, anxious France of the 21st century."
--Andrew Hussey, UnHerd

About the Author

Jean-Luc Mélenchon was for many years a leading member of the French Socialist Party. He broke with the Socialists in 2008 and founded the movement that is now La France Insoumise (France Unbowed). He stood in the presidential elections of 2012, 2017, and 2022, and in the latter came close to advancing into the run-off. He is the author of more than twenty books.