The Quiet Before - On the unexpected origins of radical ideas

'' The Quiet Before is a fascinating and important exploration of how ideas that change the world incubate and spread. '' Steven Pinker ''Filled with insightful analysis and colourful storytelling... Rarely does a book give you a new way of looking at social change. This one does.'' Walter Isaacson Why do some radical ideas make history while others founder? We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fuelling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate over how to get there. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that they might soon go extinct. The Quiet Before is a grand panorama, stretching from the seventeenth century correspondence that jumpstarted the scientific revolution to the groundswell of the Chartists, the liberation movement on the Gold Coast and the underground network of samizdat publications in Soviet Russia - even the encrypted apps used by epidemiologists fighting the pandemic in the shadow of an inept administration. Beckerman shows that defining social movements-from decolonization to feminism-thrive when they are given the time and space to gestate. Now, Facebook and Twitter are replacing these productive, private spaces with monolithic platforms that are very public and endlessly networked. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart and Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential? Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem lacks - everything from patience to focus - and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again. Lyrical and profound, The Quiet Before looks to the past to help us imagine a different future.

Product details

• Authors: Gal Beckerman, Beckerman Gal
• Publisher: Bantam UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 17.02.2022
• EAN: 9781787636200
• ISBN: 978-1-78763-620-0
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 162 mm x 240 mm x 33 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom, History of Ideas, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy, HISTORY / World, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Italy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Radicalism, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations, HISTORY / Africa / West, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / General, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), Political leaders & leadership, HISTORY / Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Revolutionary groups & movements, Pressure groups, protest movements and non-violent action, Political leaders and leadership, Revolutionary groups and movements