We've Got People - by Ryan Grim (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

We've Got People: From Jesse Jackson to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a

Movement is the first book-length treatment of the roots and rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tracing the

movement that propelled her back to the 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow

Coalition -- a year before she was born. That campaign stunned the Democratic Party by coming within inches

of winning the nomination. One of the few white progressives to endorse the campaign early was Burlington

Mayor Bernie Sanders; Ocasio-Cortez, in 2016, would volunteer for his presidential campaign. Veterans of the

Sanders campaign then formed the organization that recruited Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress, and backed

her and her squad to the hilt. At every step, the movement was in conflict with the centrist wing of the party,

and the book, jam-packed with new revelations, explores how each shaped each other, and how that 30-year

war shapes the fight playing out today.

Review Quotes

"A thoroughly researched and ultimately persuasive telling of how the Democrats arrived at their current crossroads." -- Kirkus Reviews

"If you've been reading Ryan Grim's consistently groundbreaking reporting over the past decade, the recent monumental shift in our politics came as little surprise. For anybody who wants to understand where we've been and where we're going, We've Got People is an essential read." -- author Naomi Klein.

"Grim's We've Got People is a splendid and long-overdue history of the modern Democratic Party offering vital context for this pivotal moment in liberal and left politics." -- Osita Nwanevu, staff writer at The New Yorker.