Solidarity

The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

By: Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Astra Taylor

Narrated by: Veronica Giguere

A VULTURE BEST BOOK • From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity—not just as a rallying cry, but as potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change.

A DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST

“A window into what is possible when we reject the politics of division, trade individualism for interconnectedness and prioritize coming together for the greater good.”—Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone

"Reads at once like a moral treatise and a rallying manifesto, a call to reflect and lock arms.”—The Washington Post

Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Here, two leading activists and thinkers survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class to ask: how can we build solidarity in an era of staggering inequality, polarization, violence, and ecological catastrophe? Offering a lively and lucid history of the idea—from Ancient Rome through the first European and American socialists and labor organizers, to twenty-first century social movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter—Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor trace the philosophical debates and political struggles that have shaped the modern world.

Looking forward, they argue that a clear understanding of how solidarity is built and sustained, and an awareness of how it has been suppressed, is essential to warding off the many crises of our present: right-wing backlash, irreversible climate damage, widespread alienation, loneliness, and despair. Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor insist that solidarity is both a principle and a practice, one that must be cultivated and institutionalized, so that care for the common good becomes the central aim of politics and social life.

Great Content

A much needed objective overview of the perennial human impulse to band together with fellow citizens to make a better world.

We all owe a debt to one another as human beings.

This book puts together such a fragmented idea on the Political Left into a nice package. It will inform activists for years to come and the lessons, people, philosophies, and examples used are incredible. Give it a read or a listen and start organizing for a better world!

A hopeful but serious discussion

The authors laid out a hopeful vision of the work required and the risks we must take along with what the world could look like. it's worth the read