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The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sirota
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $12.75
You Save: $13.20 (51%)
New (34) Used (9) Collectible (3) from $12.75
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 53151
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307395634
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780307395634
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An All-Access Pass to the Populist
Insurrection Brewing Across the Country
Job outsourcing. Perpetual busy signals at government agencies. Slashed paychecks. Stolen elections. A war without end, fatally mismanaged. Ordinary Americans on both the Right and Left are tired of being disenfranchised by corrupt politicians of both parties and are organizing to change the status quo. In his invigorating new book, David Sirota investigates whether this uprising can be transformed into a unified, lasting political movement.
Throughout the course of American history, uprisings like the one we are seeing now have given birth to powerful movements to end wars, protect workers, and expand civil rights, so the prospect of today’s uprising turning into a full-fledged populist movement terrifies Wall Street and Washington. In The Uprising, Sirota takes us far from the national media spotlight into the trenches where real change is happening—from the headquarters of the most powerful third party in America to the bowels of the U.S. Senate; from the auditorium of an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting to the quasi-military staging area of a vigilante force on the Mexican border. This is vital, on-the-ground reporting that immerses us in the tumultuous give-and-take of politics at its most personal.
Sirota also offers a biting critique of our politics. He shows how the uprising is, at its core, a reaction to faux “bipartisanship” in the nation’s capital—the “bipartisanship” whereby Republican and Democratic lawmakers join together in putting the agenda of corporate interests above all those of ordinary citizens.
Ultimately, Sirota reminds us that the Declaration of Independence, “America’s original uprising manifesto,” says that governments “derive their powers from the consent of the governed.” Irreverent and insightful, The Uprising shows how the governed have stopped consenting and have started taking action.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Long Live the Uprising June 4, 2008
Ronald T. Shuman (Chicago, Illinois)
31 out of 38 found this review helpful
The Populist Uprising has a long and rich history in this country, and in his new book noted author David Sirota demonstrates that this movement is alive and well (on both the Left and the Right) is alive and well. Sirota is a wonderful political writer who possesses that rare knack of being able to clearly outline his position without a lot of jargon that so plagues other political authors. Love him or hate him, Sirota has a lot to say, and this is one book that should be read by everyone.
Fantastic July 3, 2008
Kenneth Brosky (Milwaukee, WI USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Well-written, better than "Hostile Takeover." You can tell now by reading this book that Sirota has more confidence in his writing style and isn't afraid to pepper his stories with a very human narrator, something that's important in titles like this where readers are given a very close-up look at a particular institution. The book is extremely informative (I had never even heard of "Third-Party Fusion" before reading this book, and now I want to know how I can bring it to Wisconsin!), and the intimate glimpses inside Washington and everywhere else shows readers various sides of issues that we don't normally see in the corporate press. I'm actually quite surprised to see another reviewer attack Sirota because of his chapter on the Minutemen on the border. I thought the chapter was actually quite fair, maybe TOO fair given how many of the people he meets seem to be struggling to hide their racism, but that's just one opinion. Either way, it's an intimate glimpse into a movement, just like every other chapter, and every chapter offers something we can learn from.
Excellent Read July 14, 2008
Brian Drygas (San Jose, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You will learn something new from reading this book. David Sirota provides first hand accounts of populist movements around the US. I learned about the Working Family Party in New York and fusion. I also got a new perspective on Washington driven faux uprisings vs. real uprisings.
The book has a great mix of personal story and the uprising description. It has a good flow to it and is divided up into distinct sections. If you don't like a section - just skip it. I enjoyed reading all of it.
Read this book! July 22, 2008
C. Berglund (Pine Valley, CA)
I recommend this book to anyone who has had that gnawing feeling that something is not quite right in this country we love. Do you think the big corporations have too much power? Is the middle class disappearing? What did our founders really intend when they created the separation of powers? Did we lose control of our country...and how can we get it back? David Sirota writes about pockets of discontent that are beginning to bubble and boil all over the country. Small uprisings that are having an effect on corporations, in state policies, and in Congress. If you thought you were alone, read this book and find out that others are sharing your concern...in one way or another. This book will stir you up and widen your eyes. I learned so much from each chapter and had a good laugh or two along the way. David Sirota is a great writer who has his ear to the ground and shares his wealth of knowledge in this book. Read it.
 A disconnected and atomized "uprising" June 23, 2008
L. Feld (Arlington, VA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Excellent writers are like great chefs; you don't really need to know what they're writing/cooking to know you're in for a treat. In this case, we've got David Sirota riffing (and reporting) on how a bunch of "disconnected and atomized" rage is "frothing" in America.
Whether it's anti-illegal-immigrant vigilantes, frustrated high-tech workers, "blue chip revolutionaries," "Uprising Television" (or radio or blogs), netroots activists, the anti-tax movement or the anti-anti-tax movement, there certainly appear to be a lot of pissed off people out there in America today. Just look at polls that show 80%+ of people who feel the country's headed in the wrong direction. Look at the huge turnout in this year's presidential primaries -- particularly on the Democratic side -- and the upsurge in political energy being shown by people around the country. Look at the anger at the President, at the Congress, at many of our institutions.
The question is, does all this add up to a "populist uprising?" Even David Sirota is skeptical, but he certainly sees the potential for such an uprising, and apparently so does a nervous corporate American and insider political establishment. In the end, I'm not sure that Sirota has completely proved his thesis, that "the disparate pieces of this uprising are all part of one enraged backlash." However, after reading his well-written, well-researched, informative, and entertaining book, I'm far less likely to write off that thesis as a definite possibility in coming years.
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