If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
'A stunning history of now' GREG GRANDIN
'Phenomenal . . . it would be criminally negligent not to read it if you'd like to change the world' ROB DELANEY
From 2010 to 2020, more people took part in protests than at any other point in history. But what type of change did they deliver?
From the so-called Arab Spring and Gezi Park in Turkey, to Ukraine's Euromaidan and student rebellions in Chile and Hong Kong, this decade was propelled by explosive mass demonstrations. If We Burn is a stirring global history guided by a single, puzzling question: how did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?
In this groundbreaking study of street movements and their consequences, acclaimed journalist Vincent Bevins weaves hundreds of interviews from around the world into a fast-paced, gripping narrative. Analysing both the successes and defeats, it allows us to understand our world in the present - and offers urgent lessons for the future.
More praise for If We Burn:
'The best book I read this year' EAMON WHALEN
'In searching for the missing revolution, Bevins may help others find it after all' LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
'This book is outstanding' BENJAMIN MOSER
'Tremendous' INTERCEPT
'A bold vision of the future' MERVE EMRE
'A riveting, almost novelistic narrative' DAZED
'Critical lessons for activists both here and abroad' NEW REPUBLIC
Vincent Bevins is an award-winning journalist. He covered Southeast Asia for the Washington Post, and served as Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He previously worked for the Financial Times in London, and now contributes to outlets like The New York Times Magazine and the London Review of Books.
Vincent's first book, The Jakarta Method, was published in 2020 to critical acclaim. His works have been translated into fifteen languages.