This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century

by Mark Engler, Paul Engler, Bill McKibben (Foreword by)

Overview

In a book that has become a modern classic of social movement organizing, Mark and Paul Engler explain that there is a craft to uprising—and that this craft can change the world. 

From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to #BlackLivesMatter and movements to defend democracy, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. While mass movements are often portrayed as spontaneous and unpredictable, Mark and Paul Engler examine the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest.

Now updated with new material discussing the major mobilizations of the past decade—including #MeToo, protests for racial and climate justice, and anti-Trump resistance—This Is an Uprising shows how new protest movements can be essential in fighting authoritarianism and advancing social and economic justice today.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645030768
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	02/03/2026
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mark Engler is a writer in Philadelphia, an editorial board member at Dissent, and codirector of the Whirlwind Institute, a social change strategy center. 
  
Paul Engler has spent more than two decades as an organizer and social movement trainer. He is founder of the Center for the Working Poor, cofounder of the Momentum Training, and codirector of the Whirlwind Institute. 

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 The Strategic Turn 1

Chapter 2 Structure and Movement 31

Chapter 3 The Hybrid 59

Chapter 4 The Pillars 87

Chapter 5 Declare Victory and Run 117

Chapter 6 The Act of Disruption 143

Chapter 7 The Whirlwind 171

Chapter 8 The Dividers 197

Chapter 9 The Discipline 225

Chapter 10 The Ecology of Change 251

Conclusion 281

Acknowledgments 285

Notes 289

Index 329

Editorial Reviews

An important analysis of nonviolent strategy.”—New York Times

“Absorbing… Ambitious… Indispensable. A genuine gift to social movements everywhere.”—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

“For all those who dare to dream that truly transformational, even revolutionary change might be possible here in America in our lifetimes (but who wonder what strategies or tactics could possibly achieve a monumental shift in consciousness), this book is for you. We have more power than we realize, and the compelling stories of nonviolent movements around the world told here have much to teach us about how we can use our power wisely.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

“Mark and Paul Engler’s This Is an Uprising is an essential resource for anyone interested in the strategies of nonviolent organizing. It is a thoughtful, well-researched, and compelling document in which the authors argue convincingly not only for the effectiveness of nonviolence resistance, but also for the need to integrate lessons taken from movements from vastly different political and social terrains.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“If you’ve ever wanted to know how nonviolent social movements get started, what makes them succeed, and what causes them to fail, then Mark and Paul Engler’s This Is an Uprising is the perfect read for you…. Both a collection of inspiring true stories about the world’s most influential movements and a practical guide to using nonviolence as a method of political and social change, This Is an Uprising shows readers how transformation really happens, and how you can help.” —Bustle

“Thorough and authoritative...Both as a primer on the theory of nonviolent protest and as a practical guide to positive action, [This Is An Uprising] is an invaluable resource.” —New Internationalist

“Thoroughly researched, [This Is an Uprising] provides a great overview of how movements succeed — and fail…. If you’re looking for a far-reaching review of both contemporary and historical movements, as well as the academic literature that helps drive them, you can’t do much better than this book.”  —Inc. Magazine, “12 Books That Will Help You Change The World”

“The year 2017 is off the election cycle so the political action is likely to move into the streets. That’s why… I’m reading This Is an Uprising, by writer Mark Engler and his activist brother Paul. The book is a deeply informative history of direct action, from Martin Luther King Jr.’s groundbreaking Birmingham, Ala., campaign in 1963 to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A new book that should help us rethink our lives… Couldn’t recommend it more strongly.” —Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch

“Especially timely in the wake of protests across the United States, this book offers insight into how far we’ve come as a country and how much further we have to go.” —Library Journal

“A usefully organized, concise history of social movements that will appeal to newer generations of activists.”—Kirkus

“Anyone who doubts that community organizing is a significant part of the social fabric will find such assumptions dispelled by this intriguing and illuminating overview.”—Booklist

“Engler and Engler have distilled decades of complex and often discordant theories into an accessible guide to effective lasting civil resistance and organization building. This is a book that is likely to be read and reread for years to come.”—Shelf Awareness (starred)

“This is a landmark book—not merely a history of nonviolent resistance, but a distillation of a few key concepts. ‘Momentum-based organizing’ puts a name on something that many of us had dimly intuited. It’s a powerful method for making real change fast. And real change fast is in fact what our world requires.” —Bill McKibben, author and co-founder of 350.org

“This book is certain to become a seminal text…. The authors brilliantly illuminate the debates between advocates of mass mobilization, organization building, nonviolence, and disruption. Mark and Paul Engler have constructed a new intellectual platform to advance our understanding of these strategic dilemmas.” —Frances Fox Piven, author of Challenging Authority and Poor People’s Movements

“Mark and Paul Engler have compiled a true masterpiece on the history, logic, ethics, and power of nonviolent action.”—Erica Chenoweth, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“This exceptional book by two outstanding social activists has somehow managed to fuse artful story-telling, weighted social analysis, leadership know-how, together with a model of movement to gift us with a viable vision of a world that we can all live in. A compelling read.”—Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways and founder of 100Movements

“This might be one of the most important books on community organizing and effecting change I have ever read.”—A. T. Ross, novelist

“This book tells the stories of the mass movements that have made our world and continue to change it, and it tells them with excitement, insight, and hope like few have told them before.” —State Senator Maria Elena Durazo

From the Publisher

2015-11-10
Optimistic overview of the recent surge in politically directed, nonviolent mass advocacy movements, focused on historical examples and the tactical future. Co-authors Mark Engler (How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy, 2008) and Paul Engler, founding director of the Center for the Working Poor, collaborate on a cleareyed, enthusiastic treatise, seeing evidence in diverse historical and recent events that collective civil actions are supplanting violent rebellions in creating social change. At the outset, they wonder, "what if periods of mass, spontaneous uprising are neither as spontaneous nor as unbridled as they might at first appear?" They build their response around a number of longitudinal real-world examples, ranging from Martin Luther King's 1963 campaign in Birmingham to Gandhi's 1930 "salt march," which discredited the British Raj, to the recent Occupy protests. They synthesize these narratives with an overview of effective strategies, based on theorists Saul Alinsky, Frances Fox Piven, and Gene Sharp (an obscure academic considered a perennial favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize), producing a clearly organized mix of history and handbook. Although King was an early proponent of "momentum-driven mass mobilization," the Englers note that his approach was more improvisational and high-risk than is historically remembered. They hold up the surprisingly quick mainstream acceptance of gay marriage as an example of successful legislation and networking; in contrast, the divisive tactics of ACT UP in response to the 1980s AIDS crisis produced both backlash and effective change. In a chapter on organizational discipline, the authors examine how the Weather Underground's destructive approach essentially crippled the New Left. Although the authors write with clear passion regarding these examples of dramatic social change, they acknowledge that the Arab Spring has provided a counternarrative: "the revolution in Egypt presents a troubling case….Not all efforts to create change prevail over the long term." A usefully organized, concise history of social movements that will appeal to newer generations of activists.

Kirkus Reviews