The Next American Revolution

A world dominated by America and driven by cheap oil, easy credit, and conspicuous consumption is unraveling before our eyes. In Grace Lee Boggs' powerful, deeply humanistic new book, The Next American Revolution, she assesses the current crisis—political, economical, and environmental—and shows how to create the radical social change we need to confront new realities. A vibrant, inspirational force, Boggs has participated in all of the twentieth century’s major social movements—for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, and more. She draws from seven decades of activist experience, and a rigorous commitment to critical thinking, to redefine “revolution” for our times. From her home in Detroit, she reveals how hope and creativity are overcoming despair and decay within the most devastated urban communities. Her book is a manifesto for creating alternative modes of work, politics, and human interaction that will collectively constitute the next American Revolution.Grace Lee Boggs, the recipient of many human rights and lifetime achievement awards, is an activist, writer, and speaker. She is celebrated in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Boggs is the coauthor, with James Boggs, of Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century and the author of Living for Change: An Autobiography. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she is 95 years old.Scott Kurashige is Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and author of The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles.The daughter of a train porter and a schoolteacher, Ruby Dee grew up in Harlem and attended Hunter College before joining the American Negro Theatre in 1941. In 2008, Dee received her first Oscar nomination for her role as Mama Lucas, the mother of drug lord Frank Lucas, in the hit film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington. She is also well-known for her numerous collaborations with her husband, actor Ossie Davis, whom she married in 1948. Dee's films span a generation and include 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story,1961's A Raisin in the Sun and 1988's Do the Right Thing. Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were renowned for their work on behalf of equal opportunities for African Americans in the performing arts. In 2004, the couple received the Kennedy Center Honors for their contributions. They published their joint autobiography, With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, in 2000. Dee penned her well received memoir, My One Good Nerve, in 1998.