On Courage - by Julia Angwin & Ami Fields-Meyer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and a former White House senior advisor, a deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian - based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across the world.

The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s.

But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay "So You Want to Be a Dissident?," veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating - and profoundly hopeful - guide to courage in an age of fear.

Meet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace, their community, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway - and how you can do it, too.

Blending rich, previously untold narratives with history, spirituality, and movement research, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons - an inspiring resource for anyone, anywhere, who feel the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world.

Review Quotes

"If there are books for moments in history this must certainly be one. It's clear, practical and above all inspiring. It's a counsel of hope. It shows how humble beginnings--a few people talking together--become the first seeds of radical social, spiritual and political change. Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny and Ece Temelkuran's How to Lose a Country told us where we were heading. This extraordinary work tells us what we can do about it--how we, the people, can change things. It traces the history of successful social movements, and also tells us where things sometimes went wrong. When I find a book that seems really important I sometimes buy multiple copies so I can share them with friends. I want to buy hundreds of this one." - Brian Eno

"Democracy rarely fails because people don't know right from wrong. More often, it falters because those with power face hard moments alone--and choose safety over courage. Ami Fields-Meyer and Julia Angwin have written an essential guide that gives us the tools to stand up for what we believe in during the critical moments ahead." - Joyce Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Giving Up is Unforgivable

"In keeping with its title this book is itself an act of altruistic courage. Here is the practical, historically informed examination of dissent that our troubled moment calls for. We have, in recent years, witnessed violent insults to democracy, to the rule of law and to basic civic decency and asked 'What can we do?' One profoundly important answer to that question should be: 'Begin by reading On Courage.'" - Jelani Cobb

"For anyone who has ever wondered what they would have done in darker times in history--and who is now realizing they may not have to wonder much longer--On Courage is the book you need. It arrives at exactly the right moment: as we learn that the defense of our democracy begins not in the halls of power, but with each of us. This book will inspire you with the stories of those who have done this before-dissidents, organizers, and ordinary people who turned back authoritarian power-so we can walk in their footsteps. Read it. Then act." - Ian Bassin, Co-Founder of Protect Democracy and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient

"On Courage is the book I wish I'd had when I made the decision to speak out. It's a clear-eyed, deeply human manual for doing what's right even amid profound personal risk. Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer have given us a gift: a powerful and practical testament to listening to the lonely inner voice that insists something is wrong--and discovering along the way that we were never truly alone." - Miles Taylor, whistleblower and New York Times bestselling author of A Warning

At just the moment we need it most, Fields-Meyer and Angwin offer a brilliant roadmap for moral clarity and resolve in profoundly challenging times. On Courage is both a spiritual and practical toolkit and a stirring call to action. This book is a forceful, inspiring charge to take meaningful risks to confront injustice, and to do it together. Above all, it is a reminder: if we are to survive this storm, it will be because we find the courage to practice dissent. - Sharon Brous, national bestselling author of The Amen Effect and named the #1 most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek

"Angwin and Fields-Meyer have written an inspiring book about communities of resistance and bravery in times of democratic back sliding. This book is sadly relevant for the time we live in." - Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize