Rebuild the Dream

by Van Jones, Ariane Conrad Narrated by J.D. Jackson, Van Jones

Overview

Van Jones' journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider ended after his resignation as special advisor to the Obama White House. Now, in Rebuild the Dream, Jones lays bare his experiences, offering a unique perspective on the seven biggest mistakes the administration has made. Then he goes a step further- proposing a bold plan to fix our democracy and restore hope in the American Dream.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“This guy is a Yale-educated lawyer, he is a best-selling authority about his specialty.”
—Howard Dean, Former Governor of Vermont, Presidential Candidate and Chair of the Democratic National Committee

“Van is a gifted leader of ideas and of action. He makes connections, thinks beyond the box, and inspires others to join… He inspired people across the country with the insight that the transition to a sustainable economy could be the greatest jobs program since the mobilization for World War II – and that we could insure that those who were left out of the old economy could be central to the green jobs of the new economy.”
—Robert Borosage, President of Institute for America's Future

“Van Jones has made it his life's work to speak truth to power”—Nancy Pelosi in Time Magazine "Van Jones is an American treasure … one of the few Americans in recent years to have generated powerful new ideas that are creating more jobs here.”—Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President, on CNN.com “Van has successfully brought together urban youth with clean-tech entrepreneurs, labor leaders with business leaders, civil rights activists with environmentalists.”—Arianna Huffington, on the Huffington Post “Van Jones is an exceptional and inspired leader who has fought to bring economic and environmental justice to communities across our country.”—John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress
“Van Jones has worked tirelessly to bring jobs and environmental progress to some of the poorest communities in our nation. His dedication and leadership are exactly what we need more of in Washington.”
—Justin Ruben, Executive Director of Moveon.org

“Jones is an extraordinarily important leader. He cares, passionately, about helping young men and women find their way in the world, even if they had the misfortune to grow up in bad neighborhoods or make bad choices – and he sees in a new green economy a powerful instrument to heal their lives.”
—Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club

Kirkus Reviews

Staunch advocacy for the Rebuild the Dream movement by its co-founder, who argues that to rebuild America's economy requires not simply a strong leader but a mass social movement. Jones (The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, 2008), an environmental activist and former special advisor to the Obama administration on clean-energy jobs, begins by examining the movements that preceded and helped to elect Obama and those that emerged to challenge him. As he scrutinizes the Tea Party, the author asks what can be learned from its success and what the Occupy movement needs to do to achieve its goals. Jones sifts through both the accomplishments and the mistakes of the Obama administration. In the second section, the author presents a neat framework that he calls the Heart Space/Head Space Grid for interpreting events and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of movements. Political success stories, he writes, must contain four elements: villain, threat, hero and vision. He demonstrates the presence or absence of these four factors in the Obama campaign, the Obama administration, the Tea Party movement and the Occupy movement. To understand the mechanics behind these movements, he turns to swarm theory, the idea that decentralized, self-organized groups harness a sort of collective intelligence that renders them more resilient than vertical hierarchies. Jones describes how the Rebuild the Dream movement seeks consensus and bottom-up direction through community organizing, "crowd-sourcing," online petitions, digital projects and conferences. In the final section, the author introduces the Contract for the American Dream, a 10-point consensus-based program for reviving the economy based on local production, thrift, conservation and ecological restoration. Magazine-style sidebars accentuate the text, and simple diagrams illustrate the essential points of Jones' arguments. A confident clarion call sure to arouse controversy in this election year.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171080020
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	09/21/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged

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