"Soul has been a powerful inspiration to citizens acting for environmental sanity, showing how they can take committed stands, even if they don’t know every last answer. The new edition is even more inspirational."
—Bill McKibben

"Brims with stirring stories of everyday heroes who saw something wrong, heeded the voice of their conscience, gathered support and, acting in concert with others, changed things and made a difference."
—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Soul of a Citizen helps us find the faith we need to act on our deepest beliefs—and keep on."
— Marian Wright Edelman, Children's Defense Fund

"Rich, engaging, clearly written. An essential book for anyone who wants to work for change. It will inspire people new to activism, and deals with cynicism and burn­out in a good way for movement veterans. Altogether, a wonderful job, rich with specific experience." —Howard Zinn

SOUL OF A CITIZEN:
Living With Conviction in Challenging Times
By Paul Rogat Loeb
Revised edition, St. Martin's Press, April 5, 2010, $16.99 ISBN 978-0-312-59537-1 
Buy the book

With over 100,000 copies in print, Paul Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen has become a classic handbook for budding social activists, veteran organizers, and anyone who wants to make a difference—large or small—in these challenging times. An antidote to powerlessness, it has inspired thousands of citizens to make their voices heard and actions count—and then stay involved for the long haul. Assigned in hundreds of college classrooms, Soul has been particularly useful to get students involved in their communities.

In April 2010, St. Martin’s will publish a new edition for a new world, a completely revised edition to speak to the challenges and opportunities of our time. It will help get new people involved and encourage active citizens whose spirits are flagging, or feel let down and disappointed from their hopes of not long ago. Based on thirty-five years studying the psychology of social involvement, Loeb describes how ordinary citizens can make their voices heard and their actions count in a time when they often feel neither matter. Soul explores what leads some people to get involved in larger community issues while others feel overwhelmed or uncertain; what it takes to maintain commitment for the long haul; and how community involvement and citizen activism can give back a sense of connection and purpose rare in purely personal life.

Writing in an engaging and evocative style, Loeb offers profound lessons on civic engagement:

• Our efforts can do more--for ourselves and for the world--than we may ever imagine.
  
  

• We don't have to become saints--or wait for the perfect situation--to take action.
  
  

• Change happens little by little, step by step.
  
  

• We can savor the journey of engagement, even though our ultimate destination is unclear.
  
  

• The impact of our efforts will often ripple outward in ways we can't predict.

At the heart of SOUL OF A CITIZEN are profiles of a broad range of people who've learned these lessons. They include an inspiring mix of new and old stories, including:

• How Virginia Tech student Angie De Soto began so apathetic she spent the night of the 2004 election playing a drinking game instead of voting. She then became interested in global climate change and created a pioneering environmental sustainability plan for her once-apathetic campus.

• How a Maine housewife helped lead a path-breaking campaign finance reform initiative "so my kids won't grow up in a cynical world."
  
  

• How a prominent British climate scientist who is also a leading evangelical "converted"Rich Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, on global climate change. Cizik’s shift, he said, "shook my theology to its core,"and he went on to enlist other evangelical leaders, like Rick Warren.
  
  

• How a Seattle environmental activist celebrated her hundredth birthday, still passionately involved. "You do what you can," she said. "Then you do some more."
  
  

• How a young Barack Obama first started speaking out during the student anti-apartheid movement—through a campaign at his school launched by a former Green Beret. How this underscores the power of citizen activism, because we never know where the person we enlist will end up.

• How an African American man served seventeen years in the California prison system, then initiated a pioneering drug rehabilitation effort to give people "the support they need, in a language they can understand."

• How the founder of the leading liberal group MoveOn, Joan Blades, befriended Michelle Combs, communications director of the highly conservative Christian Coalition. How their friendship led to a joint campaign that saved the Internet as an open-access commons, instead of a medium to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
  
  

• How an eighth-grade dropout joins a community group in her San Antonio barrio, helped design an innovative job program and eventually testifies before the U.S. Senate. "The group found some spark in me," she recalls. "I never knew I had it."

Soul’s new edition also includes reflections on Paul’s personal journey, from being kicked out of Stanford for challenging the Vietnam War to a 15-state election engagement project, which he created and ran in 2008, that helped engage students on hundreds of campuses. It includes a wholly updated exploration of political burnout, including the dangers to engagement of citizens feeling let down by Obama, and how they can keep on to create change. It includes an updated look at the world of "virtual activism"—and how our new technologies can either increase face-to-face engagement or become seductive traps to replace it. The new Soul of a Citizen takes a classic of citizen engagement and brings it up to the present, helping us meet the all challenges and opportunities of our difficult and promising time.

"Without engaged citizens, politics is dead. Citizen activism was the source of this country’s birth, and today ensures its future.  To really, truly understand why it’s important for us all to stand up and act, and how to do it, read the new updated edition of Soul of a Citizen, an activist classic that belongs on the shelf right next to Saul Alinsky.”

—Thom Hartmann

"Soul of a Citizen has inspired thousands of people, of widely differing perspectives, to take a stand. It teaches them how to get past the barriers to act, and why their actions matter. The new edition is a powerful personal guide to get people involved."
—Hans Riemer, youth vote director, Barack Obama campaign, former political director, Rock the Vote

"When my daughter asked from college how to be an effective grassroots citizen, I gave her Paul's book. The new edition is even more powerful."
—Josette Sheeran, executive director, United Nations World Food Program

"Should be mandatory reading for anyone over the age of 12—especially every woman or man who has traded 'I give a damn'for  'I give up.'"—San Francisco Chronicle

Click to read the book's reviews, reading group suggestions, bulk order details, and information on classroom teaching, including classroom study questions and service-learning examples.

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