Daring Democracy Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want

An optimistic book for Americans who are asking, in the wake of Trump’s victory, What do we do now? The answer: We need to organize and fight to protect and expand our democracy.

Americans are distraught as tightly held economic and political power drowns out their voices and values. Legendary Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé and organizer-scholar Adam Eichen offer a fresh, surprising response to this core crisis. This intergenerational duo opens with an essential truth: It’s not the magnitude of a challenge that crushes the human spirit. It’s feeling powerless—in this case, fearing that to stand up for democracy is futile. It’s not, Lappé and Eichen argue. With riveting stories and little-known evidence, they demystify how we got here, exposing the well-orchestrated effort that has robbed Americans of their rightful power. But at the heart of this unique book are solutions. Even in this divisive time, Americans are uniting across causes and ideologies to create a “canopy of hope” the authors call the Democracy Movement. In this invigorating “movement of movements,” millions of Americans are leaving despair behind as they push for and achieve historic change. The movement and democracy itself are vital to us as citizens and fulfill human needs—for power, meaning, and connection—essential to our thriving. In this timely and necessary book, Lappé and Eichen offer proof that courage is contagious in the daring fight for democracy.

Frances Moore Lappé, author of the multimillion-selling Diet for a Small Planet and seventeen other books, is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the “Alternative Nobel.”

“A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who swerve past the barriers of greed and power to hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

Adam Eichen is a member of the Democracy Matters board of directors and a fellow at the Small Planet Institute. He is the co-author, with Frances Moore Lappé, of the new book Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want. He served as the deputy communications director for Democracy Spring.

OPENING NOTE
Why We Had to Write This Book

Part I: Rethinking the Crisis

CHAPTER ONE
What It Will Take

CHAPTER TWO
Bringing Down the Thought Barriers

Part II: Exposing the Roots

CHAPTER THREE
Manipulating the Mindset

CHAPTER FOUR
Rigging the Rules

Part III: Creating Solutions Together

CHAPTER FIVE
Democracy’s Calling

CHAPTER SIX
Meet the Democracy Movement

CHAPTER SEVEN
Listen Up, America!
North Carolina Has a Story to Tell

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Thrill of Democracy

CHAPTER NINE
Dare for Democracy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

INDEX