mcarley88's review
5.0
Amy Goodman's show is a must watch every single day, and this book is excellent. For those concerned about the rise of consolidated corporate media, independent media is an absolute necessity. You'll read about stories you won't hear anywhere else, and you'll see aspects of stories you do know about that corporate media won't touch (hurts their bottom line, you see.) I highly recommend this book.
dangerousnerd's review against another edition
5.0
Like A People's History of the United States, the book is full of heroes. It's inspiring to see how brave these people are, standing up for what is right no matter the cost. Everybody should read this book.
laura1300fer's review against another edition
4.0
Sweeping and massive. It would have been 6 stars for me, but as an avid Democracy Now! listener/viewer many of the stories and context were known to me. I went to Amy's book signing in Washington, DC in May 2016 during the 100 city tour for DN!'s 20th anniversary and it was a dream come true to meet Any and David in the flesh. Here's to 20, 100 years more!!
kawooreads's review against another edition
5.0
For years I have listened to Democracy Now! a radio program that delivers global news and pays special attention to the stories and reports from activists and grassroots organizations. I ordered this book for a few dollars from thriftbooks and was pleasantly surprised it is autographed (thank you "Susan-" for surrendering this copy). This collection of essays covers some of the larger U.S. political and social movements of the past 20 years, including the wars in the Middle East, Black Lives Matter movement, immigration reform, and LGBTQ fights for equality and recognition. Each essay touches on things I already knew about, but expanded on them to include the voices of those directly effected and how the work of grassroots movements are working tirelessly to steer us in the direction of true democracy, not for power or prestige, but so we all can be part of a system where we all benefit. The chapter on Whistle-blowers was especially alarming. As individuals we may feel helpless at times, but together we can do so much for our communities. Goodman is a fantastic writer and orator. She casts a wide net over each issue and proceeds to narrow it down to one basic principle, we are all humans with rights, and no power great or small should be allowed to silence the voices of those crying out for justice, for equity, for peace. I recommend this book to all Americans. In the age of mass media where we are constantly overloaded with information (by design), it is important to look back on the past 20 years and where we have succeeded and failed ourselves and each other.
shakespeareandspice's review
4.0
Democracy Now! is taking you through the years of covering American political news by Amy and David Goodman. Each chapter focuses on a specific corner of the political playground. By quite a few examples, Democracy Now! has clearly struggled and fought for the right of freedom of press pretty consistently. After finishing it, I’m honestly surprised that the ugly politics of Washington hasn’t taken away the spirit of these people to keep reporting from corners of the US which mainstream media doesn’t want to touch.
The only frustrating thing about it is that it really is just an overview of everything over 20+ years, which often left me unsatisfied with each of the chapters and subsections. Because they barely grazed the surface of a topic before the book moved on from the topic, I was a bit put out even though I understand this is just the nature of the book. Frankly, I would’ve loved to go on reading about immigration, foreign policy, global warming politics, etc. for the rest of my reading month.
The only frustrating thing about it is that it really is just an overview of everything over 20+ years, which often left me unsatisfied with each of the chapters and subsections. Because they barely grazed the surface of a topic before the book moved on from the topic, I was a bit put out even though I understand this is just the nature of the book. Frankly, I would’ve loved to go on reading about immigration, foreign policy, global warming politics, etc. for the rest of my reading month.
jacquelynjoan's review
5.0
Fantastic.
Moves quickly, but is very moving.
As depressing as some of the reporting can be, the rest is equally inspiring.
Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman are National Treasures.
Like she says, independent media is the oxygen of democracy.
Moves quickly, but is very moving.
As depressing as some of the reporting can be, the rest is equally inspiring.
Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman are National Treasures.
Like she says, independent media is the oxygen of democracy.
sarah_who_reads's review
4.0
More like 3.5. I really appreciated Goodman's chronicling of the movements themselves - I liked reading about them and would have read many books about them. And at times, they were incredibly inspirational. But often they were not. I felt like many of the chapters ended on quite pessimistic notes, which may be rooted in journalistic reality but just may not be the way I want to read about movements. I'd prefer to focus on what they've won, and where the path goes from there on what they're still working on. So maybe this book just wasn't what I was looking for on that front. The other issue I had is that I thought it was a book about reporting on those movements, but often it seemed to be more a book about those movements themselves. From Goodman, I wanted to read about reporting. And while she does talk about reporting, at least as much of the book seems to forget about the reporting part and just talks about the movements themselves, which I would have preferred to read from the perspectives of people involved in those movements as activists, from the inside. The best parts of the book are when Goodman talks about her experiences reporting, such as when she has to abruptly leave a country she's reporting from because it gets too dangerous to stay (no spoilers).
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