Well, today is the big day - the launch of my new book, THE UPRISING. You can order the book at href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307395634?tag=sirotablog-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0307395634&adid=1BYG4T2ZJJAZXD5JM0YF&">Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Tattered Cover, href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/0307395634?&PID=30567">Powell's or through your local independent bookstore. The book should be in bookstores all over the country starting today.
For a good summary of what the book is about, check out this week's Newsweek, which featured a Q&A about the book in its Periscope section.
The relevance of the book is exemplified by this morning's headlines about the presidential candidates campaigning in the Mountain West and about a powerful shareholder resolution being filed at ExxonMobil's upcoming shareholder meeting. Both of these topics are chapters in the book. The book features chapters on (among others) the Netroots/blogosphere, the antiwar movement, new labor organizing efforts, the Minutemen, Lou Dobbs, the Working Families Party and shareholder activism. It includes icons like Sister Pat Daly, Brian Schweitzer, ACORN's Bertha Lewis, Ned Lamont - and yes, OpenLeft's own Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers.
Right now, I'm here in Burlington, Vermont, where tonight U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders will join me at the first event of the national book tour (to see the full book tour schedule, go here). This is an appropriate launching point for the book. Sanders is a major figure in today's populist uprising (and in the book), and his methods of building cross-partisan, cross-ideological coalitions in support of populist causes is one of the least-explored but most important case studies in how to turn an uprising into a full-fledged movement.
Being here in Vermont with him to launch this project is really exciting - not just because Sanders is such a significant figure, but because places like Vermont - places far away from the national media spotlight - are the real frontlines of this battle. In an interview with Seven Days, Vermont's major alternative weekly newspaper, I explain this state's role in the populist uprising. You can read that interview here.
In the coming days, I'm going to be on the Colbert Report, and will have excerpts of the book published in two of the country's leading progressive magazines.
I hope to meet as many of you as possible on this tour. Obviously, I hope you buy the book - and just as importantly, I hope you tell as many people as you can about the upcoming events in your area, and about the book. As I've always said, this book represents a perspective shunned by the Establishment - and that means I rely on grassroots support from you in buying the book and telling your friends about it. It also relies on a real grassroots outreach strategy, which is why I am spending the next two months on the road doing events with local groups all over the country.
As I launch this book, let me just take this moment to thank all of you for your support over the years - and for your support on this project. I couldn't do it without you.