Thank You, Anarchy
Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Thank You, Anarchy is an up-close, inside account of Occupy Wall Street’s first year in New York City, written by one of the first reporters to cover the phenomenon. Nathan Schneider chronicles the origins and explosive development of the Occupy movement through the eyes of the organizers who tried to give shape to an uprising always just beyond their control. Capturing the voices, encounters, and beliefs that powered the movement, Schneider brings to life the General Assembly meetings, the chaotic marches, the split-second decisions, and the moments of doubt as Occupy swelled from a hashtag online into a global phenomenon.
A compelling study of the spirit that drove this watershed movement, Thank You, Anarchy vividly documents how the Occupy experience opened new social and political possibilities and registered a chilling indictment of the status quo. It was the movement’s most radical impulses, this account shows, that shook millions out of a failed tedium and into imagining, and fighting for, a better kind of future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schneider offers a riveting, yet sometimes frustrating account of Occupy Wall Street's first year in New York. After the foreword by Rebecca Solnit, the book takes readers from the meetings leading up to the occupation of Zuccoti "Liberty" Park on September 17, 2011, to the movement's progress across the country and around the world, up to it's first anniversary. Schneider (God in Proof) draws from first-hand reportage, social media, and other sources to depict the spirit, influences, conflicts, and criticisms of the movement. Choosing to describe the movement as an apocalypse will no doubt turn off some readers, but one of the strongest passages in the book addresses Schneider's faith, and the attempted occupation of property owned by Trinity Church. The tone varies between profoundly earnest and pragmatic, though clearly Schneider stands with the Occupiers. Some of his responses to the criticisms of the movement are less than convincing, but never become dismissive. Still, readers may get the sense that in order to invest in Schneider's passion or disappointments, you needed to have been there.
