Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe

by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

Overview

A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book

Real-world solutions to America’s thorniest social problems—from housing to retirement to drug addiction—based on original reporting from around the world

A new generation of Americans has declared that another world is possible. And yet, the stubborn problems of inequality, climate change, and declining health seem as intractable as ever. Where might different answers lie?

Intrepid journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata has traveled around the world, from Costa Rica to Uganda, and Estonia to Singapore, uncovering how different countries solve the problems that plague the United States. Through in-depth reporting, including interviews with senior government officials, activists, industry professionals, and the ordinary people affected by their policies, Another World Is Possible examines innovative programs that address public health, social services, climate change, housing, education, addiction, and more.

In each instance Hakimi Zapata provides a clear-eyed assessment of the history, challenges, cost-effectiveness, and real-world impact of these programs. The result is a compelling, frame-shifting account of how we might live differently and create a safer, healthier, more sustainable future.

A work of keen analysis as well as enormous heart and optimism, Another World Is Possible is destined to crack the mold of current debates, and to refresh our sense of what might be possible tomorrow.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620978443
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/04/2025
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Natasha Hakimi Zapata is an award-winning journalist, university lecturer, and literary translator. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, In These Times, Truthdig, Los Angeles Magazine, and elsewhere. The former foreign editor of Truthdig, she lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Another World Is Possible:
“This distinctive book looks to other countries for solutions to social and environmental problems in the United States.”
—Library Journal

“Hakimi Zapata examines how other nations have successfully addressed social conditions that continue to vex America.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Even if you don’t believe the ‘America is the best country in the world’ propaganda, I think it can be hard for Americans to remember that the ‘American Way’ isn’t the only way. That’s why I’m so excited for Another World Is Possible, a book that offers international solutions to American problems.”
—Literary Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2025

 

"Zapata debuts with an illuminating survey of how America’s most pressing social issues have been handled by other countries. . . . The result is a fascinating and inspiring glimpse of how rational governance operates."
—Publishers Weekly

"Full of lessons for American activists on how to bring enhanced social welfare programs into reality, despite the odds."
—Kirkus Reviews

"It only takes a few months outside the country to realize that political culture in the U.S. is profoundly provincial; to see that the richest nation on Earth suffers from a debilitating lack of imagination. Natasha Hakimi Zapata relies on years of global experience to show U.S. Americans what they are missing. Often, U.S. political elites act as if other societies barely even exist; the sympathetic reporting in Another World is Possible makes them feel deeply real."
—Vincent Bevins, author of The Jakarta Method and If We Burn

"As Americans, it’s striking to live in the wealthiest society ever known and yet be surrounded by needless suffering and political demoralization. Natasha Hakimi Zapata reminds us that social-democratic solutions to the problems that plague our country have already have been put into place across the world. Clearheaded and optimistic, her book provides a rousing response to those who say the progressive left is out of ideas."
—Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin, president of The Nation magazine, and author of The Socialist Manifesto

"Natasha Hakimi Zapata will lift your spirit with evidence that another world is not only possible but that it is already here—if we look and fight for it."
—Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and author of Technofeudalism

“From Norway’s generous family policies to Singapore’s innovative public housing model, Another World Is Possible offers a refreshing and desperately needed perspective on what’s achievable when societies prioritize the common good.”
—Meagan Day, Jacobin

“Another World Is Possible could not be more important for our present moment. By profiling successful social democratic policies around the world, Natasha Hakimi Zapata demonstrates that progressive ideas are not unrealistic or utopian. They work. Not only does she convincingly and thoroughly explain how housing, healthcare, education, and criminal punishment can be transformed, but she tells the history of how heroic activists around the world successfully organized to change their countries. To those seeking inspiration for their own activism in dark times, this book is an indispensable guide to what we can do if we work together.”
—Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief, Current Affairs

“Another World Is Possible is a worldwide journey exploring how some of the most advanced social policies emerged only after those respective countries’ darkest times.”
—Meghna Chakrabarti, NPR’s On Point

From the Publisher

2024-11-09
A tour of progressive countries and their solutions to problems of social issues such as education and health care.

An American resident in Europe, Hakimi Zapata tours the world to analyze the ways in which developed nations have enacted programs leading to progress in meeting social needs. “I became convinced that as we fight for a more equitable and sustainable existence,” she writes, “progressives need to arm themselves with tried-and-tested ideas that provide clear inspiration for our own policies.” In recent memory, she notes by way of example, health care in Britain was a congeries of charity hospitals, rural clinics, and private practices that confined good medical care to those who could afford it, leaving the rest to fend for themselves, very much like America today. Reforms enacted by social activists and strong political leadership led to the national program that, despite the cries of right-wing critics, actually works quite well: As Hakimi Zapata notes, her out-of-pocket payments have been confined to a few vaccinations not covered by national insurance for travel abroad. One such country a couple of generations ago was Singapore, where every citizen has access to housing—and, more, to homeownership, a stake in the game. Norway, once a highly conservative society, leads the world in social programs that include evenly shared, subsidized parenting duties, “a more equal division of family responsibilities in both the short and long term.” Hakimi Zapata does note that bureaucracies attached to these programs can sometimes be cumbersome and difficult to negotiate, but the outcomes are unmistakable: Finland leads the world in education—“our only treasure,” one administrator says. As for the United States? “America is not working for the majority of us,” Hakimi Zapata writes. “Instead it’s working for a tiny superrich minority that amassed its wealth on the back of our collective labor—and our collective impoverishment.”

Full of lessons for American activists on how to bring enhanced social welfare programs into reality, despite the odds.

Kirkus Reviews