Remake the World

Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, author, and activist. She is the author of The People 's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age and Democracy May Not Exist, But We 'll Miss It When It 's Gone. She also wrote the foreword to Can 't Pay, Won 't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition by The Debt Collective.

"Whenever I read Astra Taylor, I never want to stop. Affable and curious, she invites readers with her on a relentless exploration of the most crucial questions facing the left, and really humanity, today. But don’t let the congeniality fool you, Taylor is a radical working to remake our world. She writes for us, the ordinary and hungry public, searching for ideas that make sense of our desires for a better world. Rooted in rigorous study, deep questioning and powerful and persuasive argument, Taylor latest, Remake the World, is further evidence that she is the people’s public intellectual." —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor"Blending big-picture thinking with the history of the populist struggle in America, this impressive collection makes a strong case that the time for change is now." —Publishers Weekly"Whether she is writing about gender discrimination in the tech industry, the plight of refugees, or the rights of the natural world, Taylor reveals in her essays a forthright commitment to “the cause of common humanity. [These] stirring essays reveal an intelligent and pragmatic voice for change." —Kirkus“Astra Taylor weighs in on the legacy of Occupy, the organizing capacity of debt resistance, and our prospects for achieving something resembling democracy…[O]ut of her experiences at Occupy, Taylor recognized a possibility to organize people around indebtedness. To do so is an economic necessity, a means to address inequality and social control. But resisting debt also provides an opportunity to “bridge the personal and political.”…Remake the World is a useful companion for that Left as we organize, listen, and continue to grow.” —Jacobin"Astra Taylor has been remaking the world with her powerful thought and prophetic action for years. This wide-ranging book is a courageous and visionary embodiment of her deep commitment to fundamental transformation!"  —Cornel West"Astra Taylor's Remake the World is a valuable log of a militant's journey through  our troubled times. Beautifully written in a warm, humorous, autobiographical style, it helps us think beyond the classic divisions in the left, while questioning whether anti-capitalists can work within the state without compromising their political integrity and whether reform is always necessarily opposed to revolution. Whatever answer we give to these questions, this is a book we should read." —Silvia Federici"Astra Taylor’s crystalline writing is on full display in this collection of penetrating and profound essays, curated and necessary for these troubled times." —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz"Astra Taylor is a rare public intellectual, utterly committed to asking humanity 's most profound questions yet entirely devoid of pretensions and compulsively readable." —Naomi Klein"Astra Taylor is both a deeply important thinker, and a beautiful writer. She has the rare ability to make connections between subjects that desperately need to be seen as one.  Remake the World  brilliantly draws upon history to show us how to successfully challenge the present-day forces that have taken a battering ram to democracy.  Taylor's work matters so much because she calls us to a bigger vision. Read this book, then take action." —Jane McAlevey"An essential and inspiring read for anyone trying to organize for a better world." —Peace News"One of the most incisive thinkers on participatory politics today." —Molly CrabapplePraise for Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone:"Astra Taylor will change how you think about democracy... She unpacks it, wrestles with it, with the question of who gets included and how...she excavates the invisible assumptions that have been bred into our idea of democracy... Taylor's work is alive to paradoxes, ambiguities, and hard questions that don't offer easy answers." ―Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show"We live in an age that demands that we rethink democracy from the roots―and teach ourselves to think again as citizens. Smart and engaging, Astra Taylor 's Democracy May Not Exist makes a formidable contribution to meeting those pressing generational challenges." ―Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality"A brilliant, deeply learned discourse on democracy, equality, and how the second might save the first, by one of the most incisive thinkers on participatory politics today." ―Molly Crabapple,author of Brothers of the Gun"What a lot of trouble democracy has been! Over the years it 's been hijacked by its enemies, its reforms have backfired, it has evaded challenges, it has refused to heed its prophets. But as Astra Taylor reminds us in this timely and sagacious book, there is no substitute. The fate of the world depends on it." ―Thomas Frank, author of Listen, Liberal"What is this thing called Democracy? Google the question and you will exceed one million hits. But for an honest and illuminating answer, read this book―every single word. Searching, lucid, visionary, Astra Taylor takes a deep oceanic dive into the history, meaning, uses, and promise of democracy―moving from Plato 's Greece to Syriza 's Greece, from the Global South to post-Communist East, from slavery to fascism, liberalism to neoliberalism, Occupy to the Commons. She knows what most political scientists don 't: that democracy is a promise unfulfilled, and in our strivings to achieve it nothing is guaranteed. But we can 't live without it." ―Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination"Astra Taylor is a rare public intellectual, utterly committed to asking humanity 's most profound questions yet entirely devoid of pretensions and compulsively readable. Now she plunges deep into the crisis that underlies so many others: the sorry state (and the exhilarating promise) of this thing called democracy. At once richly historical and immediately relevant, this wise, lucid and unflinchingly honest book deserves to be at the center of public debate." ―Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not Enough"Moths never reach the moon, but they navigate by it; we humans may never reach democracy, Astra Taylor tells us, but we navigate by its ideals. This is a beautiful, revelatory book about ideas and how they matter in everyday life, by the only writer who could herself navigate so gracefully among factory workers, contemporary economics, and ancient Athenian history." ―Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me