On Courage

Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist, a bestselling author, a New York Times contributing Opinion writer and founding director of the Independent Media + Audience Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She is the founder of two nonprofit newsrooms – Proof News and The Markup – that investigate the impacts of technology. She is a winner and two time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance (Times Books, 2014) and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America (Random House, March 2009). Ami Fields-Meyer is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation and a former senior policy advisor at the White House, where he led U.S. policy initiatives related to civil rights, consumer protection, and technology policy. He has served as a strategist to national civil rights organizations, political candidates, and high-profile public officials from Los Angeles City Hall to the West Wing. Fields-Meyer’s writing on issues of democracy and public policy has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and other outlets. A former speechwriter, he is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

“On Courage is an important new contribution to the literature of patriotic dissent, and comes at a vital time in the life of our democracy. Extremely well-written. . . . Within these pages you will meet the heroes who took on other agents of oppression and preserved their democracies. We will, too.” — Adam Schiff, U.S. Senator and New York Times #1 bestselling author of Midnight in Washington"This book will make you think and feel differently about what it means to live in this country at this moment and what you are capable of as your country needs you. It will make you feel less alone in the world and less alone in history. It will give you concrete ideas of what you can do right now to help your country. It will make you feel more equipped for whatever is coming next. I couldn't recommend it more highly. . . . Invaluable. A classic of our time. Everybody should read it." — Rachel Maddow“If there are books for moments in history this must certainly be one. It’s clear, practical and above all inspiring. It’s a counsel of hope. It shows how humble beginnings—a few people talking together—become the first seeds of radical social, spiritual and political change. Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny and Ece Temelkuran’s How to Lose a Country told us where we were heading. This extraordinary work tells us what we can do about it—how we, the people, can change things. It traces the history of successful social movements, and also tells us where things sometimes went wrong. When I find a book that seems really important I sometimes buy multiple copies so I can share them with friends. I want to buy hundreds of this one.” — Brian Eno"Democracy rarely fails because people don’t know right from wrong. More often, it falters because those with power face hard moments alone—and choose safety over courage. Ami Fields-Meyer and Julia Angwin have written an essential guide that gives us the tools to stand up for what we believe in during the critical moments ahead." — Joyce Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Giving Up is Unforgivable"In keeping with its title this book is itself an act of altruistic courage. Here is the practical, historically informed examination of dissent that our troubled moment calls for. We have, in recent years, witnessed violent insults to democracy, to the rule of law and to basic civic decency and asked 'What can we do?' One profoundly important answer to that question should be: 'Begin by reading On Courage.'" — Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism and New Yorker staff writer“For anyone who has ever wondered what they would have done in darker times in history—and who is now realizing they may not have to wonder much longer—On Courage is the book you need. It arrives at exactly the right moment: as we learn that the defense of our democracy begins not in the halls of power, but with each of us. This book will inspire you with the stories of those who have done this before–dissidents, organizers, and ordinary people who turned back authoritarian power–so we can walk in their footsteps. Read it. Then act.” — Ian Bassin, Co-Founder of Protect Democracy and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient“On Courage is the book I wish I’d had when I made the decision to speak out. It’s a clear-eyed, deeply human manual for doing what’s right even amid profound personal risk. Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer have given us a gift: a powerful and practical testament to listening to the lonely inner voice that insists something is wrong—and discovering along the way that we were never truly alone.” — Miles Taylor, whistleblower and New York Times bestselling author of A WarningAt just the moment we need it most, Fields-Meyer and Angwin offer a brilliant roadmap for moral clarity and resolve in profoundly challenging times. On Courage is both a spiritual and practical toolkit and a stirring call to action. This book is a forceful, inspiring charge to take meaningful risks to confront injustice, and to do it together. Above all, it is a reminder: if we are to survive this storm, it will be because we find the courage to practice dissent. — Sharon Brous, national bestselling author of The Amen Effect and named the #1 most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek"Extraordinary. . . . It couldn't come at a more important time. . . . It's not just fear that is contagious, courage as well is contagious, and I think that you will start to be infected with the courage once you read this book." — Jacob Soboroff, anchor of MS NOW’s Connect with Jacob Soboroff“Angwin and Fields-Meyer have written an inspiring book about communities of resistance and bravery in times of democratic back sliding. This book is sadly relevant for the time we live in.” — Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize"There has never been a more important time for this book." — M Roberts, Booklist Advance Reviews"A powerful and deeply timely book...As a former political prisoner, I know that authoritarianism seeks to isolate those who resist it. On Courage turns hard-earned wisdom into a practical and profoundly hopeful guide for anyone called to defend freedom." — Félix Maradiaga, Nicaraguan opposition leader and president of the World Liberty Congress