Booklife Review
Daley-Harris is clear-eyed about the challenges that make change difficult, acknowledging that he’s “not immune to the despair and frustration” about the difficulty of finding “common cause” in the “post-Trump era.” But he’s impassioned and persuasive in his advocacy of advocacy itself, and his brisk case studies prove heartening: RESULTS’s actions saving the International Fund for Agricultural Development during the Reagan era; CCL’s booming growth into a national lobby with extraordinary outreach capabilities.
Daley-Harris urges “citizen advocates” to “lead with vulnerability and authenticity” and to move beyond social media when striving to make change. At the same time, he calls for non-profits to empower the grassroots. He laments how so many people feel little connection to their government, and champions “the exhilaration” of making a difference. Then, writing with the clarity and enthusiasm of a coach, he offers updated but classic steps toward actually doing so: how to approach a meeting with officials and maybe land them on a cause’s “champion scale”; how media outlets actually work; why “partnership” beats “partisanship” when building a movement; and much more.
Takeaway: Rousing guide to advocacy, movement-building, and enacting change in cynical times.
Comparable Titles:Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Now, Leslie R. Crutchfield’s How Change Happens.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A