- From Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and former senior White House advisor, a deeply documented guide on how anyone can challenge an authoritarian regime - based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists and theorists from around the world. \*The United States is only the latest country to confront a leader who uses fear as a weapon, punishes his political opponents, forcibly disappears people, and undermines the integrity and freedom of elections. Today, nearly three-quarters of the world's population lives under authoritarian rule, the highest proportion since the late 1970s.But even under oppressive circumstances, each of us has the power to help push back dictators. Based on their famous article in The New Yorker titled “So You Want to Be an Opponent?”Veteran journalist Julia Angewen and political strategist Amy Fields-Mayer offer us a captivating - and hopeful - guide to courage in an age of fear.Meet a Hong Kong student who has risked everything for democracy. A mother from a popular neighborhood in Caracas broke away from the political movement in which she grew up. Young men in their twenties from Cairo took bold action to help bring down a dictator. A meek immigrant fighting to save a landmark civil rights law in the United States. People from across the United States and five continents faced serious risks of dissent in their workplaces, communities, or countries. “About Courage” is the story of howThey did it after all, and how can you do it too.
In their book On Courage, Angwin and Fields-Mayer blend rich, never-before-seen narratives, history, spirituality, and social movement research, offering an easy-to-understand book full of practical lessons, and an inspiring source for anyone who feels the lack of time, wherever they are, as if history is being applied to them. About Courage is a roadmap for political courage, and a powerful argument for how personal risk-taking can help save the free world.
