If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781541788978)

The story of the recent uprisings that sought to change the world - and what comes next

From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. IF WE BURN is a stirring work of history built around a single, vital question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?

From the so-called Arab Spring to Gezi Park in Turkey, from Ukraine's Euromaidan to student rebellions in Chile and Hong Kong, acclaimed journalist Vincent Bevins provides a blow-by-blow account of street movements and their consequences, recounted in gripping detail. He draws on four years of research and hundreds of interviews conducted around the world, as well as his own strange experiences in Brazil, where a progressive-led protest explosion led to an extreme-right government that torched the Amazon.

Careful investigation reveals that conventional wisdom on revolutionary change is gravely misguided. In this groundbreaking study of an extraordinary chain of events, protesters and major actors look back on successes and defeats, offering urgent lessons for the future.


Author: Vincent Bevins
ISBN-10: 1541788974
ISBN-13: 9781541788978
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Language: English
Published: 10/03/2023
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/31/2023
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2023
Choice 05/01/2024