Sam Adler-Bell has written the most in-depth review yet of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals, published today at New Republic. Lucid, provocative, and beautifully written, Adler-Bell’s review is well worth the read, even if you’ve already read the book.
Here’s how it kicks off:
In its final months, Hillary Clinton’s campaign depicted the election in Manichaean terms: the forces of light against darkness, love against hate, the guardians of a virtuous public against a world-historical bully. In this story, we lost the election not because we did something wrong, but because we did something right in a world that’s wrong. We fought the forces of misogyny, xenophobia, and white supremacy, but they were too strong; they overwhelmed us. And how could they not? This is America after all.
The left—especially the activist left—makes this mistake all the time: imagining there is some meaningful consolation in losing righteously. In 1934, Bertolt Brecht wrote, “It takes courage to say that the good were defeated not because they were good, but because they were weak.”
You can read the full review at New Republic.
Hegemony How-To 