Jarrod Shanahan lives, parents, and attempts to organize in Chicago. He is the author of
Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage (Verso, 2022). He is the co-author of States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform and America’s Punishment System (Field Notes/Reaktion, 2022), City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island (NYU Press, 2025) and Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City (Haymarket, 2025). Jarrod is an editor of Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity (Verso 2022), and a founding editor of Hard Crackers: Chronicles of Everyday Life. His essays have appeared in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, Ill Will, End Notes, The New Inquiry, Gothamist, Truthout, and other publications. He is also a regular guest on The Antifada and other fringe podcasts. Jarrod works as an associate professor of so-called criminal justice at Governors State University.
Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help: A Decade of Rebellion, Reaction, and Morbid Symptoms
SKU: 9798887441269
Author: Jarrod Shanahan • Introduction by A.M. Gittlitz
Series: PM Press
ISBN: 9798887441269
Published: 09/02/2025
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 320
Subjects: Anarchism, Socialism, Activism, Labor
Praise
“These essays are political theory, cultural critique, movement memoir, and ethnographic study. Together, they are a crucial analysis of the decade of tumult that brought us here. Shanahan writes with brilliance, humor, and—above all—love, love for those who dream of better horizons and take to the streets to build them. Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help is a chance to reflect, to dream and to plot—a true gift to the Left.”
—Eman Abdelhadi, coauthor of Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072
“Rather than pondering politics from a distance, Shanahan writes from within the political moment itself. We find in these pages not simply an appraisal of America’s slow decline into social anomie or even an activist account of recent political movements but instead a picture of history in all its murky motion, where the antipolice riot gives way to the Trump rally, while apocalyptic myths play out on TV. This book therefore offers both a treasure trove of careful observations tracking the trends of our chaotic moment and an example to be followed by others seeking real social change.”
—Phil A. Neel, author of Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict
“A banger! Tracing the morbid symptoms of late capitalism and collective responses from Occupy Wall Street to the rise of the far-right and everything in between, Shanahan’s activism and writing remain deeply committed to building movements that demand ‘everything for everyone.’ Coming at a time of great despair and disillusionment with liberal politics, this collection offers today’s revolutionaries a sober analysis of past and present political experimentations, all the while remaining hopeful and engaged with our fiery future.”
—Zhandarka Kurti, coauthor, States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System
“Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help, and so do we. Jarrod Shanahan delivers on the promise. He is a fine writer, perhaps the best of his generation among far-left activists—a participant-journalist and a revolutionary who thinks while he acts. These essays are grounded in his experiences in mass mobilizations against police terror, some days and nights in jail, watching some good and not so good movies, and personal underground investigations into the alt-right. Because of his writing, we go where he goes. And we’re all better prepared for what comes next.”
—John Garvey, editor of Race Traitor, Insurgent Notes, and Hard Crackers
“Searching, and hilarious—Shanahan writes from, about, and for the people. These essays document more than a decade of struggle and reflection from an expansive thinker and committed writer; Shanahan is a relentless and astute interpreter of the present American landscape.”
—Jack Norton, coeditor of The Jail is Everywhere: Fighting the New Geography of Mass Incarceration
“Protests against police and the carceral logic of racial apartheid in the United States have swept the nation, from organized militant movements such as Stop Cop City in Atlanta, to protracted street battles in Ferguson, to widespread popular resistance during the George Floyd Rebellion. Every Fire Needs a Little Help offers an urgently needed collection of essays written from the heart of this conjuncture, with crucial insights that will be necessary for navigating out of the liberal cooptation of struggle.”
—Danielle Carr, author of The Brains of the Living: the Rise, Fall, and Second Coming of Neural Engineering
“Alternately funny and furious, this collection is a radical guide to the history of the present—something we all need.”
—Malcolm Harris, author of What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis
Book Events
june, 2026
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Reviews
Interviews
- Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Dark Money w/ Jarrod Shanahan
- Doing Politics the Right Way w/ Lake Effect
- Protest, Pop Culture and the Alt-Right: Jarrod Shanahan on a Decade of Upheaval
Mentions
Blog
- Eric King’s Ethics of Revolt
- Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Dark Money w/ Jarrod Shanahan
- Doing Politics the Right Way w/ Lake Effect
- Protest, Pop Culture and the Alt-Right: Jarrod Shanahan on a Decade of Upheaval
- Jarrod Shanahan and Zhana Kurti of Hard Crackers discuss the critical conditions of America’s mass-carceral society
- Kay Gabriel reviews Captives in The Nation:
- Jarrod Shanahan discusses Captives with Natasha Lennard for Bookforum