This May Day, this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, I apologize in advance. But I also don’t. The next few months, I’ll be working hard to spread the word about my new book, Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy, published by the good people at Nation Books. The book is done, and the final details are closing in. It comes out in mid-September.
I apologize because I’m entering this promotional phase. I’ll be reaching out again asking you to help, if you’re so moved. But I don’t apologize about that, really, because the book shares stories that I believe need to be known—stories of the promise and struggle in the new generation of the cooperative movement. At a time when democracy is on the rocks, when the economy seems to run on a mix of autopilot and superheroes, we need these reminders that cooperation has helped build our world and can shape its future.
Learn more here. Retweet this. Maybe even place a preorder. Let me know if you’d like to publish a review or interview, or to schedule an event. Together, let’s help bring this radical tradition back to life.
Various dystopias
In the meantime, there are powers-that-be to troll. Here are some recent publications of mine more or less in that vein:
- Facebook isn’t a startup anymore. It’s not yet a real “community.” It’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to give up control. (Vice)
- Some people want to turn more and more of life into cryptocurrency-powered auction markets. (America)
- Journalists and researchers could share a whole lot more of the data they collect. But should they? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Read the first scholarly journal article on platform cooperativism behind an impenetrable paywall. Or not. (The Sociological Review)
Works not cited
Have you read what Mark Twain regarded as his best book? Ted Gioia wades through his pious, late-live tribute to Joan of Arc.
Jessica Weisberg points out that America’s favorite guide to the corporate ladder was himself a precarious gig worker.
Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza learned to organize in the kitchen.
Now is an interesting time to revisit Mr. Zuckerberg’s pre-IPO letter to potential investors.
Scott Korb wonders whether standardized testing has killed the first-person.
Students are already producers; what if they were co-owners?
My CU Boulder colleagues and I stand with our embattled local journalists.
Times and places
- 2018.05.02: Oakland, CA – “User, Worker, Owner!” #platformcoop event
- 2018.05.24: Berlin, Germany – “Mapping the Ecosystem” #platformcoop workshop at SUPERMARKT, 3-6 p.m.
- 2018.07.26-27: London, UK – Open2018: Collaborative Technology for the Cooperative Economy
- 2018.11.07: Boulder, CO – Colorado Shared Ownership Summit
- 2018.11.17-20: Denver, CO – American Academy of Religion
The existence of a pope has never squared well with how we do business in the United States. In The Nation this week, as the United States anticipates and dreads the arrival of Pope Francis, I offer a report on the economics of the so-called radical pope. I draw from my decade-plus experience in the contradictions of papism, plus interviews with leading Catholic economists and economic innovators. The Nation even saw fit to include a list of some of my favorite classics of Catholic economic thought, forthcoming along with the article in the next issue.
For more on Francis, don’t miss my latest column for America magazine on the idea of the commons in the pope’s thought, as well as a controversial blog post about the ecology encyclical and an interview about just how far the Vatican has come on environmental issues.
Higher ground
As much as I still love getting invited to awesome things friends are doing in New York (I do), it turns out that I don’t live there anymore. A few weeks ago my family arrived in Boulder, Colorado, where I am now serving as a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado’s new College of Communication, Media, and Information.
And what’s that book in the way of the mountains? Well, just in time for hauling my books halfway across the country, my dear God in Proof has been released in a lighter, convenient paperback edition—the perfect companion for adventuresome bike rides. Get your copy today!
Debts worth having
We’ve lost our language for talking about debt—for knowing the usurious from the upbuilding, the good from the bad. That’s why you should be sure to pick up Yes! Magazine‘s current “debt issue”, full of stories and wisdom from people like Charles Eisenstein, Laura Gottesdiener, and Raj Patel. I’ve got an essay in there too on the question of what debts are actually worth having. Pick up the issue from newsstands today, and look for my essay online starting September 15.
People’s platforms
You might have noticed that a lot of my articles over the past year have dealt with efforts to build a more democratic Internet. Those efforts are now building toward a first-of-its-kind event at the New School on November 13-14: Platform Cooperativism: The Internet, Ownership Democracy. Featuring co-op developers alongside tech CEOs, venture capitalists alongside domestic workers, my co-organizer Trebor Scholz and I are trying to throw an historic coming-out party for the cooperative Internet. Register now.
To learn more about what we’re up to, see my new manifesto in Pacific Standard‘s “future of work” series, “Owning What We Share.”
Moneyless elf
One last thing I’d like to share with you is a story that appeared recently at Killing the Buddha, an oral history I recorded last year while working on an article for The Nation about a group of hackers modeling their commune in Italy on a medieval monastery. One evening when the others were gone, one of those hackers, elf Pavlik, recited a detailed account of living for the past five years without money or government documents. Read what he told me here.
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For about a decade now, I’ve been undertaking a gradual and ever-escalating experiment in using free and open-source software for my everyday needs. It has come to feel like an integral part of my work as a writer and thinker; the computer, after all, is often the chief companion of my day. This has become all the more important as my reporting has focused on resistance to profit-driven economies and domineering ideologies. In the new issue of The New Republic, I write about the pleasures of the community-based technology I use. I mean it as an invitation and a plea—to join the challenging but satisfying task of aligning our digital lives with our analog values, to use technology that depends on how well we build together and learn from each other.
Read the article in The New Republic here. To help spread the word about it, retweet this, share or like this, and upvote this.
Has the Time Come for Universal Basic Income?
Across the political spectrum, the idea of a no-questions-asked payout for everyone is gaining momentum. I’ve written about how Silicon Valley is getting behind the concept as an antidote for what automation is doing to the job market. Libertarians want it as a replacement for means-tested welfare programs, while socialists see it as a step toward abolishing the wage system. It seems like a crazy, impossible idea, but it may not be for long.
On May 26 at Civic Hall in New York City, I’m going to be part of a discussion about the prospects of universal basic income with progressive entrepreneur and activist Peter Barnes. Barnes’ proposal for a “citizen’s dividend” based on carbon emissions is an ingenious way of both mitigating climate change and strengthening the economy. We’ll be joined by scholar and basic-income advocate Michael Lewis, as well as Institute for the Future fellow Natalie Foster. RSVP on Facebook and Eventbrite here.
To learn more about universal basic income, listen to recent podcasts on the subject from my friends at Belabored and Disorderly Conduct.
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Starting this Thursday, October 9, tune your radios and podcast machines to On Being, Krista Tippett’s extraordinary, nationally syndicated public radio show about the meanings of life—I will be the guest.
Krista interviewed me this summer at the Chautauqua Institution about my books, God in Proof and Thank You, Anarchy, as well as my recent reporting on the politics of technology. During our conversation, under the canopy of a Greek-temple-ish structure with more than a thousand listeners, I felt I was in the presence of a mentor and a kindred spirit—someone who shares my love of exalted topics, as well as someone who had taken the time and energy to engage deeply with my work. Choose a way to listen to the show here.
Both books are still available, either directly from University of California Press (God here, Occupy here) using the special discount code 13M4225, or wherever else books are sold.
On to the hacking
Sometimes exalted topics need to get hacked. That’s why I’m taking part in an experiment called Wisdom Hackers, a kind of philosophy incubator. After spending our summers exploring burning questions, this band of artists, explorers, and instigators are sharing the results in a collaborative book, thanks to a new serial-based publishing venture called The Pigeonhole (which my new bride Claire explains here).
My contribution, which formed during a search for new social contracts around the world, ended up becoming a reflection on our culture’s fascination with hacking itself—the allure and the trouble. It will become available on November 10, but in the meantime, subscribe to the book here (yes, you can subscribe to books now) and read the work of my fellow hackers.
And more
This fall I’m honored to begin a new column at America magazine, a leading Catholic weekly. Follow my columns and blog posts at my author page.
In August The Nation published my dispatch from a hacker monastery in Matera, Italy.
The first in a series of articles on working hours appeared in Vice magazine in August as well: “Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday?” It kind of blew up.
Thank you, as always, for reading!
]]>On May 1, 1933, the Catholic journalist and activist Dorothy Day went to New York’s Union Square to distribute copies of the first issue of her newspaper The Catholic Worker. As she made her way through the crowd, she had a ready audience of thousands: men in coats, ties, and hats — as low-wage workers and radicals apparently used to dress — gathered around a maze of signs for labor unions, fraternal societies, and parties representing the various varieties of socialism then on offer. These groups disagreed in every way they could think to, but they shared the square regardless. For decades, in the U.S. and around the world, May Day was International Workers’ Day, commemorating protesters killed in Haymarket Square, Chicago, during the 1886 strike for an eight-hour workday. It also had earlier roots as a spring holiday of maypoles and flower baskets. Dorothy Day was only one among many at Union Square trying to suggest a way out of the economic crisis of the time. This was well into the Great Depression, when the breadlines and the legions of unemployed people posed an existential threat to American capitalism; skirmishes between fed-up workers and abusive employers were common and often bloody. Day proposed a synthesis of Christian love and communist solidarity, militant pacifism in pursuit of “a society where it is easier to be good.” The Catholic Worker quickly became the script for a new religious and political movement. Within months, circulation grew from a first run of 2,500 copies to 10 times that, and it reached 150,000 before Day’s pacifist convictions caused subscriptions to drop during the lead-up to World War II. Each May Day, New York’s Catholic Workers still celebrate the birth of their movement with a communal supper and singing.And something shorter a few days ago for Reuters on the double canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII:
The Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, nearing the end of a long restoration, has a new mural over its main doors. Surrounding the Holy Spirit, in the form of an incandescent dove, is a gathering of women and men flanked by angels. Most have soft yellow halos, but three figures, including the pair closest to the dove, do not. The three are local icons. Activist and writer Dorothy Day wears a hat with the inscription “NO WAR” and holds a stack of Catholic Worker newspapers, the publication she founded. Beside her is Bernard Quinn, a priest who served Brooklyn’s African American community at a church just blocks away, and whose Long Island orphanage was twice burned down by racists. Pierre Toussaint, who looks intently toward the dove, was a slave-turned-philanthropist who, on gaining his freedom in 1807, adopted his surname from the leader of the Haitian revolution.
To celebrate the Catholic Worker movement’s 81st birthday today, I snuck Dorothy Day into two articles in the space of a week. Today, at Al Jazeera America, “What’s Left of May Day?”:
On May 1, 1933, the Catholic journalist and activist Dorothy Day went to New York’s Union Square to distribute copies of the first issue of her newspaper The Catholic Worker. As she made her way through the crowd, she had a ready audience of thousands: men in coats, ties, and hats — as low-wage workers and radicals apparently used to dress — gathered around a maze of signs for labor unions, fraternal societies, and parties representing the various varieties of socialism then on offer. These groups disagreed in every way they could think to, but they shared the square regardless. For decades, in the U.S. and around the world, May Day was International Workers’ Day, commemorating protesters killed in Haymarket Square, Chicago, during the 1886 strike for an eight-hour workday. It also had earlier roots as a spring holiday of maypoles and flower baskets.
Dorothy Day was only one among many at Union Square trying to suggest a way out of the economic crisis of the time. This was well into the Great Depression, when the breadlines and the legions of unemployed people posed an existential threat to American capitalism; skirmishes between fed-up workers and abusive employers were common and often bloody. Day proposed a synthesis of Christian love and communist solidarity, militant pacifism in pursuit of “a society where it is easier to be good.” The Catholic Worker quickly became the script for a new religious and political movement. Within months, circulation grew from a first run of 2,500 copies to 10 times that, and it reached 150,000 before Day’s pacifist convictions caused subscriptions to drop during the lead-up to World War II. Each May Day, New York’s Catholic Workers still celebrate the birth of their movement with a communal supper and singing.
And something shorter a few days ago for Reuters on the double canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII:
The Co-Cathedral of St.?Joseph in Brooklyn, nearing the end of a long restoration, has a new mural over its main doors. Surrounding the Holy Spirit, in the form of an incandescent dove, is a gathering of women and men flanked by angels. Most have soft yellow halos, but three figures, including the pair closest to the dove, do not.
The three are local icons. Activist and writer Dorothy Day wears a hat with the inscription “NO WAR” and holds a stack of Catholic Worker newspapers, the publication she founded. Beside her is Bernard Quinn, a priest who served Brooklyn’s African American community at a church just blocks away, and whose Long Island orphanage was twice burned down by racists. Pierre Toussaint, who looks intently toward the dove, was a slave-turned-philanthropist who, on gaining his freedom in 1807, adopted his surname from the leader of the Haitian revolution.
What better gift to give friends and loved ones than stories of grasping at the impossible?
According to the Los Angeles Review of Books, God in Proof “breathes life back into proofs” and is “entertaining, well written, and historically comprehensive.” Says former Washington Post columnist and peace educator Colman McCarthy, Thank You, Anarchy is "rich with metaphors, historical allusions and clearheaded reflections.”
Buy direct from University of California Press
Use discount code 13M4225 for 20% off the list price
You can also get both books pretty much anywhere else if you ask for them. Try your local bookstore. And don’t forget to share your reaction on Amazon or Goodreads.Sleigh-bells a-ringing
In the coming months, I’ll be making the following live appearances:- 12/8, Washington, DC: Center for Inquiry lecture
- 1/15, New York, NY: Rubin Museum screening of Miracle of Weebosch
- 2/16, Pasadena, CA: All Saints Church
- 2/22, San Francisco, CA: The Green Arcade
- 2/24, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University
- 3/1, Seattle, WA: AWP conference panel: "Doubt Is My Revelation"
Other great gift ideas
- Contribute to the online communities that made these books possible, and which support countless other writers in doing uncommon work—give the gift of membership to Waging Nonviolence, which covers movements for justice and peace around the world, or Killing the Buddha, a literary magazine of religion, politics, and culture. Both are 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, and membership dues are tax-deductible.
- Last month, The New Press published a new edition of Noam Chomsky’s anarchist writings, On Anarchism, and they asked me to write the introduction. The result is a slim, sweet little stocking-stuffer that presents anarchism as a tradition with both a long history and particular relevance today.
- The growing revival of interest in my favorite theologian, William Stringfellow, continues with a new reader published by Orbis and edited by Bill Wylie-Kellerman. It’s the best introduction yet to a thinker who will turn your cosmic situation upside down.
]]>
What better gift to give friends and loved ones than stories of grasping at the impossible?
According to the Los Angeles Review of Books, God in Proof “breathes life back into proofs” and is “entertaining, well written, and historically comprehensive.” Says former Washington Post columnist and peace educator Colman McCarthy, Thank You, Anarchy is “rich with metaphors, historical allusions and clearheaded reflections.”
Buy direct from University of California Press
Use discount code 13M4225 for 20% off the list price
You can also get both books pretty much anywhere else if you ask for them. Try your local bookstore. And don’t forget to share your reaction on Amazon or Goodreads.
Sleigh-bells a-ringing
In the coming months, I’ll be making the following live appearances:
- 12/8, Washington, DC: Center for Inquiry lecture
- 1/15, New York, NY: Rubin Museum screening of Miracle of Weebosch
- 2/16, Pasadena, CA: All Saints Church
- 2/22, San Francisco, CA: The Green Arcade
- 2/24, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University
- 3/1, Seattle, WA: AWP conference panel: “Doubt Is My Revelation”
Other great gift ideas
- Contribute to the online communities that made these books possible, and which support countless other writers in doing uncommon work—give the gift of membership to Waging Nonviolence, which covers movements for justice and peace around the world, or Killing the Buddha, a literary magazine of religion, politics, and culture. Both are 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, and membership dues are tax-deductible.
- Last month, The New Press published a new edition of Noam Chomsky’s anarchist writings, On Anarchism, and they asked me to write the introduction. The result is a slim, sweet little stocking-stuffer that presents anarchism as a tradition with both a long history and particular relevance today.
- The growing revival of interest in my favorite theologian, William Stringfellow, continues with a new reader published by Orbis and edited by Bill Wylie-Kellerman. It’s the best introduction yet to a thinker who will turn your cosmic situation upside down.
Thank you, as always, for reading!
“Schneider does a remarkable job of conveying the euphoric sense of possibility that transformed so many people in the square, as well as the frustrations”—Nick Pinto, Al Jazeera America
“I consider this book one of the lasting benefits of Occupy”—David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org
“[A] fast-moving cinematic chronicle”—Jonah Raskin, Occupy.com
“Part history, part on-the-scene reporting, and part hope for a better future, the work is valuable and delightfully controversial.”—John Scott G, Publishers Newswire
Agree? Disagree? You can share your own reaction with a review at Goodreads and Amazon. And don’t miss the interviews with Democracy Now, HuffPost Live, and The New Inquiry.
Get a Discount
Between now and the end of October, thanks to a special arrangement with The Nation, the folks at University of California Press are offering a 30% discount on Thank You, Anarchy if you order directly from their website using the discount code 14W3726. You can also find it at all sorts of fine retailers—ask for it at your local bookstore. If not now, when?Attend an Event
The interest in Thank You, Anarchy and God in Proof have spawned an improvised book tour:- 10/8, New York, NY: KGB Bar
- 10/9, Hempstead, NY: Lecture on proofs at Hofstra University
- 10/24, Brooklyn, NY: An Evening of Song and Abstraction at the Oratory Church of St. Boniface
- 10/26, New London, CT: Monte Cristo Bookshop
- 10/30, Brooklyn, NY: “Was Jesus a Zealot?” at St. Joseph’s College
- 11/1, Philadelphia, PA: Wooden Shoe Books
- 11/3, Brooklyn, NY: BookCourt
- 11/8, Providence, RI: Beckett Lecture of the Brown-RISD Catholic Community
- 11/18, Cambridge, MA: Celebrating On Anarchism with Noam Chomsky and the Boston Review
- 11/23, Baltimore, MD: Panel at the American Academy of Religion
- 11/26, Baltimore, MD: Red Emma's Bookstore
- 2/22, San Francisco, CA: The Green Arcade
- 2/24, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University
- 2/26-3/1, Seattle, WA: Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference
- 3/9, Washington, DC: Center for Inquiry lecture
]]>
“Schneider does a remarkable job of conveying the euphoric sense of possibility that transformed so many people in the square, as well as the frustrations”—Nick Pinto, Al Jazeera America
“I consider this book one of the lasting benefits of Occupy”—David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org
“[A] fast-moving cinematic chronicle”—Jonah Raskin, Occupy.com
“Part history, part on-the-scene reporting, and part hope for a better future, the work is valuable and delightfully controversial.”—John Scott G, Publishers Newswire
Agree? Disagree? You can share your own reaction with a review at Goodreads and Amazon. And don’t miss the interviews with Democracy Now, HuffPost Live, and The New Inquiry.
Get a Discount
Between now and the end of October, thanks to a special arrangement with The Nation, the folks at University of California Press are offering a 30% discount on Thank You, Anarchy if you order directly from their website using the discount code 14W3726.
You can also find it at all sorts of fine retailers—ask for it at your local bookstore. If not now, when?
Attend an Event
The interest in Thank You, Anarchy and God in Proof have spawned an improvised book tour:
- 10/8, New York, NY: KGB Bar
- 10/9, Hempstead, NY: Lecture on proofs at Hofstra University
- 10/24, Brooklyn, NY: An Evening of Song and Abstraction at the Oratory Church of St.?Boniface
- 10/26, New London, CT: Monte Cristo Bookshop
- 10/30, Brooklyn, NY: “Was Jesus a Zealot?” at St.?Joseph’s College
- 11/1, Philadelphia, PA: Wooden Shoe Books
- 11/3, Brooklyn, NY: BookCourt
- 11/8, Providence, RI: Beckett Lecture of the Brown-RISD Catholic Community
- 11/18, Cambridge, MA: Celebrating On Anarchism with Noam Chomsky and the Boston Review
- 11/23, Baltimore, MD: Panel at the American Academy of Religion
- 11/26, Baltimore, MD: Red Emma’s Bookstore
- 2/22, San Francisco, CA: The Green Arcade
- 2/24, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University
- 2/26-3/1, Seattle, WA: Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference
- 3/9, Washington, DC: Center for Inquiry lecture
More are in the works. If you’d like to try to bring me to your hometown, please don’t hesitate to let me know how I can help.
I hope to see you somewhere along the line!
You can be among the first to see this new animated book trailer! Share it with your friends on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Join a live interactive book event this Wednesday
In conversation with Texas-based philosophical artist Alyce Santoro, I’ll be discussing God in Proof in an online event on Wednesday at 9 p.m. eastern time, “God-Proofs and Philosoprops: Illustrating the Intangible.” You can join us from anywhere that has a decent Internet connection. Register for the event here and spread the word on Facebook.
Get the ebook
God in Proof is now available as an ebook, complete with all the illustrations and charts that appear in the print edition. Get the Kindle version at Amazon and the epub or pdf versions from other fine booksellers. (See GodInProof.com for details and a discount code.) If you like it, please consider writing a review at Goodreads or Amazon.
New book coming in September: Thank You, Anarchy
My study of the first year of Occupy Wall Street, Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse, is now available for preorder in paperback and hardcover. In the foreword, Rebecca Solnit writes: “Thanks to this meticulous and elegant book, we know what one witness-participant was thinking all through the first year of Occupy, and what many of the sparks and some of the tinder were thinking, and what it was like to be warmed by that beautiful conflagration that spread across the world.” Expect more news soon!
]]>
You can be among the first to see this new animated book trailer! Share it with your friends on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Join a live interactive book event this Wednesday
In conversation with Texas-based philosophical artist Alyce Santoro, I’ll be discussing God in Proof in an online event on Wednesday at 9 p.m. eastern time, “God-Proofs and Philosoprops: Illustrating the Intangible.” You can join us from anywhere that has a decent Internet connection. Register for the event here and spread the word on Facebook.
Get the ebook
God in Proof is now available as an ebook, complete with all the illustrations and charts that appear in the print edition. Get the Kindle version at Amazon and the epub or pdf versions from other fine booksellers. (See GodInProof.com for details and a discount code.) If you like it, please consider writing a review at Goodreads or Amazon.
New book coming in September: Thank You, Anarchy
My study of the first year of Occupy Wall Street, Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse, is now available for preorder in paperback and hardcover. In the foreword, Rebecca Solnit writes: “Thanks to this meticulous and elegant book, we know what one witness-participant was thinking all through the first year of Occupy, and what many of the sparks and some of the tinder were thinking, and what it was like to be warmed by that beautiful conflagration that spread across the world.” Expect more news soon!
Buy the book
There are some choices for how to do this.- Get it direct from University of California Press—with the discount code 13W3359 it costs just $27.96 for the hardcover. Shipping now!
- Help Amazon put everyone else out of business by ordering it there for their ever-varying low price—though it won’t ship until around the pub date on June 10. And leave a revew if you're so inclined!
- Ask for it at your local bookstore or find it wherever else books are sold.
Come to the party
It isn't a book release without a party!
- The big main release event, “An Evening of Song and Abstraction,” will take place on June 4 at 7 p.m. at the gorgeous Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn. I will be reading from the book along with sensuous, hanting renditions of medieval music by the ensemble Resonanda, which is reuniting for the occasion.
- Other God in Proof events are in the works, in New York City and elsewhere. If you want to help arrange an event in your area, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Spread the word
Media is social nowadays, so I can’t do this without you.- Tell your friends the old-fashioned way: There’s no substitute for that.
- Share the link: To send people straight to the basic info and buying options, this webpage is where I’m stashing all the latest updates and reviews.
- Review it on Amazon, Goodreads, or B&N: If you liked the book, tell the world why!
- Draw your own proof: Already, some people who’ve read the book have felt inspired to come up with proofs for various things of their own! I’ve set up a proof-making contest, which I hope you’ll enter, and the most popular entries stand to win free copies of the book courtesy of UC Press. See what others have come up with at GodInProof.com, and enter by tweeting proofs to #GodInProof or emailing them to [email protected].
Finally…
…a word of thanks. I am so grateful for your support and your willingness to help God in Proof reach readers who might not otherwise find it. I can’t do this without you, and I'd love to hear what you think about the book.]]>
After ten years in the making, five years in the writing, and a few days doing little drawings, my first book, God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet, is now becoming available. This is a guide on how you can get it for yourself and—please, please please!—help spread the word.
Buy the book
There are some choices for how to do this.
- Get it direct from University of California Press—with the discount code 13W3359 it costs just $27.96 for the hardcover. Shipping now!
- Help Amazon put everyone else out of business by ordering it there for their ever-varying low price—though it won’t ship until around the pub date on June 10. And leave a review if you’re so inclined!
- Ask for it at your local bookstore or find it wherever else books are sold.
The ebook version isn’t out quite yet, but it will be coming in a few weeks.
Come to the party
It isn’t a book release without a party!
- The big main release event, “An Evening of Song and Abstraction,” will take place on June 4 at 7 p.m. at the gorgeous Cathedral of St.?Joseph in Brooklyn. I will be reading from the book along with sensuous, hanting renditions of medieval music by the ensemble Resonanda, which is reuniting for the occasion.
- Other God in Proof events are in the works, in New York City and elsewhere. If you want to help arrange an event in your area, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Spread the word
Media is social nowadays, so I can’t do this without you.
- Tell your friends the old-fashioned way: There’s no substitute for that.
- Share the link: To send people straight to the basic info and buying options, this webpage is where I’m stashing all the latest updates and reviews.
- Review it on Amazon, Goodreads, or B&N: If you liked the book, tell the world why!
- Draw your own proof: Already, some people who’ve read the book have felt inspired to come up with proofs for various things of their own! I’ve set up a proof-making contest, which I hope you’ll enter, and the most popular entries stand to win free copies of the book courtesy of UC Press. See what others have come up with at GodInProof.com, and enter by tweeting proofs to #GodInProof or emailing them to [email protected].
Finally…
…a word of thanks. I am so grateful for your support and your willingness to help God in Proof reach readers who might not otherwise find it. I can’t do this without you, and I’d love to hear what you think about the book.
- My article "From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere" was the lead story of the October 31 issue of The Nation.?I subsequently discussed it on The John Batchelor Show.
- A bit of an essay of mine forthcoming in The Catholic Worker?newspaper is now up at OccupyWriters.com, a petition that I helped start with Jeff Sharlet and Kiera Feldman.
- An essay?on the meaning of "diversity of tactics" for Occupy Wall Street at Waging Nonviolence has been pretty widely circulated—and I hope its call for nonviolence will be heard. I'm told an edited version will appear in a new book being put out by YES! magazine next week.
- In an essay in?The New York Review of Books, Michael Greenberg mentioned the article of mine in the first issue of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, adapted from my Nation?FAQ.
My coverage of Occupy Wall Street continues, and evolves. The movement that started at Liberty Plaza is growing all the time, and as it does, I’ve been spending less and less time at the occupations themselves and more and more time writing about them, trying to take account of what has so far been the most tremendous, instructive, and hopeful political experience of my life, and perhaps of my whole generation. I’ve noticed many of the early organizers now stepping back some—resting, letting others take leadership roles, trying to dodge the temptations of ego that come with a movement that has hit the big time, a movement that is not to be confused with particular individuals, even while being made up of nothing else.
As a journalist, I’ve been doing the same. Everyone with a notebook or a camera seems to be covering the movement now, so I’m letting them do the work I was doing early on, when few others were there. I’m going through my notes and through my pictures and through my memories, trying to sort out where this came from and how. In the meantime, some more publications and appearances:
- My article “From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere” was the lead story of the October 31 issue of The Nation.?I subsequently discussed it on The John Batchelor Show.
- A bit of an essay of mine forthcoming in The Catholic Worker?newspaper is now up at OccupyWriters.com, a petition that I helped start with Jeff Sharlet and Kiera Feldman.
- An essay?on the meaning of “diversity of tactics” for Occupy Wall Street at Waging Nonviolence has been pretty widely circulated—and I hope its call for nonviolence will be heard. I’m told an edited version will appear in a new book being put out by YES! magazine next week.
- In an essay in?The New York Review of Books, Michael Greenberg mentioned the article of mine in the first issue of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, adapted from my Nation?FAQ.