Subject: Paul Loeb’s new political hope book
Paul Loeb has a wholly updated new edition of his political hope book, The Impossible Will Take a Little While. Basic Books will publish the new edition Oct 13. It’s available for pre-order now.
After 125,000 copies for the existing editions, the book’s new version keeps the powerful voices of writers like Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda, Howard Zinn, Mary Pipher, and Alice Walker. New essays include how South Koreans stopped a December 2024 coup, Norwegian teachers successfully defied the Nazis, Alexei Navalny resisted from Putin’s prisons, and ordinary Chicago citizens created a model for cities to resist ICE. Plus the real Lord of the Flies story, lessons by Heather Cox Richardson from America’s anti-slavery movement, Bill McKibben on how the global explosion of renewable energy, and National Book Award winning novelist Jesmyn Ward on protest and grief. You can get a sense of the pieces from the attached and Paul has also completely rewritten his extensive section introductions to speak to our historical moment.
Those who’ve read the new edition find it a powerful antidote to despair. Here are summaries of the essays and here are some of the wonderful reviews.
If you’d like to help:
- Preorder copies, and encourage your local book stores to order and display the book. You can do so directly through your favorite store (the most impactful option), or online at bookshop.org, which offers an alternative to Amazon and routes profits to local independent stores. Encourage local libraries to order as well. You can also pre-order at a discounted bulk rate, for instance if you want to sustain the spirits of staff and volunteers at your organization The Impossible’s new ISBN is 9781541608849.
- If you think you might teach the book, sign up to preorder an academic exam copy. As many of you know, it teaches wonderfully and Paul provides comprehensive classroom study questions.
- If you have contacts that might bring Paul in to speak at colleges or in the community, or media contacts who would be interested, please reach out to them, or email Paul for information you can to pass on.