I have big news. Today, my first book, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, comes out in bookstores, and you can order it online through my website. While you're there, please sign up for e-mail updates, as well as my Facebook and YouTube channel, and I'll keep you informed on all the happenings.
Those of you who have been following OpenLeft for awhile know that I started writing the book about a year ago. It's been a fun and exciting thing to do, made especially so because I am so fascinated by the topic: the history of how progressives and conservatives have been battling each other since 1776, and how progressives have broken through in what I call "Big Change Moments" that have fundamentally remade our country for the better. I relate all of this to the political battles I have been fighting my whole career, and to the present moment of opportunity for progressivism to once again break through in a major way. The book develops a coherent, compelling narrative about the historic battle between progressive and conservative thinking, and makes the case that when our side has won the day, the big changes that happened moved America forward and built a country we can be proud of: the Bill of Rights, the abolition of slavery, the national park system, women's suffrage, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, the New Deal, the civil rights movement -- all part of a progressive heritage that is the best of America.
I have always been a big believer in building progressive infrastructure, in promoting the groups and media voices and bloggers and books that are part of our broader progressive movement in any way I can. I am heartened now to see the favor returned by so many people at different blogs who are helping me push this out through donated ad space. The folks at FDL are having me on their book salon. Friends like Arianna Huffington, Tom Daschle, Paul Begala, Donna Brazile, Wes Boyd, David Brock and David Sirota have done blurbs for me. Others like Drew Westen, Victoria Hopper, Digby, Max Bernstein, Waymon Hudson, James Boyce, Mike Connery, and Sara Robinson have agreed to do reviews for me. Netroots Nation, USAction, Media Matters, Campaign for Community Change, ACORN, and others are helping me in a wide variety of ways. It's heartening to get all their support.
I hope I will get yours, too. As I've written time after time over the years in the support of other progressive authors, books need to get off to a fast start to have a chance of making an impact. If they do, it gives the author an even better chance of getting their message out through the extra media attention a successful book brings.
My entire point in writing this book is to build the movement, to give progressives the narrative and the facts about history to carry the day in their debates. Please buy a copy, and spread the word, through your Facebook page, your listservs, and through whatever political groups you are a part of. Every dollar I make on the book will go back into supporting politics in one way or another, so I need your help.
Crossposted at OpenLeft.