50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America

A great book for people of convictions, but without prior experience in political action. Lots of simple choices for the person who is concerned about the control aof our country, and therefore our lives and how to change things to benefit the working people. Directions on hvow to take action and quit just frustrated complaining.

Well written, better than I thought it was going to be. It offers concrete examples of how to help our nation. I loved reading every page of this book and I am excited to help our president get this country back on the right track!

Michael Huttner and Jason Salzman weren't going for "timeless", they wanted "timely" and that is exactly what they produced. New activists borne in with the Obama wave have wanted a way to get more involved, and Huttner's book focuses them on what can be done right now. Each of its chapters looks at a different element of the Obama agenda, starts with a quote from the President, provides the data that underpins the policy, breaks down the importance of the issue, and then points the reader towards hundreds of resources and organizations. Its admirable specificity comes at the expense of its shelf life. Getting Sotomayor confirmed is already behind us, this iteration of the health care wars might be gone by October, and the landscape around the Employee Free Choice Act is likely to shift before long. But this book was not intended to sit on a shelf. Every good community organizer should have it in her backpack so she has a ready answer for, "How can I help?" It is a book made for new media. The resources given are almost entirely in the form of well annotated URLs, and cover a fair range of voices. Readers interested in energy independence are directed towards eight different plans from Van Jones to the Sierra Club to T. Boone Pickens. While the viewpoint is clearly progressive, the book understands the breadth of Obama's coalition. The authors do not attempt to differentiate the plans, nor lobby for a particular approach, they just invite the reader to taste from each and follow their own passion. It is a very modern hypertext approach. In a testament to the skills of the authors, the free electronic form has translated to the printed page in a way that never becomes overwhelming. Navigating the book is incredibly easy. The chapters are arranged in clusters, beneath headings including, "become a community organizer", "volunteer in your community", and "harness the new media." It guides the activist in a very natural way to the topics that grab them. Some of the guidance takes you along roads I have happily traveled, such as blogging, campaigns, and non-profits. Some of the guidance points out pathways I had not yet tried, such as political art shows and recording the census, and there are even a few items whose inclusion caught me off guard, but had me nodding approval. (I won't ruin too many of those. One example; "Quit Smoking" is revealed as a profoundly progressive political act.) There are a lot of good books out there for the big picture. There are a lot that patiently deconstruct the political history that brought us to this day. This book is a tool for this moment. Those other books will always be in my office and on my bedstand. With this book, I am going to quickly copy a few of the links into my bookmarks folder for my personal use, and then rush it into the hands of someone else who is also ready to get to work. It is a book that wants to be used and passed around while it is still hot. If Huttner wants to start taking pre-order

Truly inspiring and helpful for the young political activist in your family. It kept both my sons engaged and interested in doing more in their school and community. It talks about a lot of the complicated issues without dumbing everything down nor does it champion a particular cause or ideology. It simply aims to make the average American more involved in the political arena and in their community just like the President did in the suburbs of Chicago. If you enjoyed "Audacity of Hope" or "Dreams of my Father" this is another must have. The President needs our help and after working as a volunteer in 2008, I know the average Joe really can make a HUGE impact and can help continue putting this country back on track.

I went door-to-door for Obama during the campaign, but I pretty much dropped out of the political process after he was elected. Partly, I didn't know what to do and partly I was burned out. Now, I'm ready to start being active again. It's just so infuriating to see our new President under such unwarrented and ignorant attack. But I'm not sure I want to get into the political fray right now directly. That's why this book was so good for me. It lays out the range of ways to start getting active, from volunteering to protesting. It's interesting to see the options grouped together, as they are in the book. It helped me understand how little excuse I have for hiding the last six months and not doing anything for Obama.