Jeremy Brecher

Jeremy Brecher is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements including Strike!, Brass Valley, History from Below, Building Bridges, Global Village or Global Pillage, and Globalization from Below. He was Humanities Scholar-in-Residence at Connecticut Public Television and Radio and received five regional Emmy Awards for his documentary film work. He helped found and currently works with the Labor Network for Sustainability. He holds a Ph.D. from the Union Graduate School.

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Praise

“This is a remarkable book: part personal story, part intellectual history told in the first person by a skilled writer and assiduous historian, part passionate but clearly and logically argued plea for pushing the potential of collective action to preserve the human race. Easy reading and full of useful and unforgettable stories. . . . A medicine against apathy and political despair much needed in the U.S. and the world today.”
—Peter Marcuse, author of Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory

“Over the last decades, Jeremy Brecher has known how to detect the critical issues of a period, to sort the many realities of suffering and injustice, and to emerge with a clear, short, powerful description. He does it again in this important book-it is about people: how our system devalues people and what needs to be done.”
—Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights

“The most important story of the past half century is that of ordinary people organizing to transform the way society looked at workers, unjust war, women, people of color, and the environment. Jeremy Brecher’s life and book tell this story with a passion and comprehensiveness that make this a must-read for fans of justice.”
—John Cavanagh, director Institute for Policy Studies and author of Development Redefined: How the Market Met Its Match and The Field Guide to the Global Economy

“Indispensable . . . A fascinating blend of political autobiography and manual for social change, giving cogent primacy to the stark goal of human preservation. With species survival at stake, what Jeremy Brecher writes is at once frightening and inspiring.”
—Richard Falk, author of Palestine’s Horizon: Toward a Just Peace and Power Shift: On the New Global Order

“One of America’s most admired activist-scholars shines his light on the path forward, reminding us that social change is both possible and urgent.”
—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

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Praise

“Jeremy Brecher’s work is astonishing and refreshing; and, God knows, necessary.”
—Studs Terkel

“Chapter by chapter, I learn from it; and I admire its ambition. When I sampled it, it engaged me so much that I set aside other work until I finished it. Overall, a fine manuscript. Rich in content. Also engaging. Is it not all or part of a philosophy or world view?”
—Charles Lindblom, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Economics at Yale University; author of The Market System

“Ever since I read the draft of Common Preservation a year ago, I’ve been compelled to urge a surprising variety of colleagues to read it, above all else, to understand the history, the successes, the failures, and the profound lessons to be learned from social justice movements: professional and volunteers organizers and activists, engaged citizens who yearn to be more effective. This history is systematically informed by an extraordinarily broad, cross-disciplinary reach for scholarly works that provide practical insight to the lessons to be learned. I know that I am not alone in finding much scholarly work difficult to relate to my experience as an advocate. By integrating the direct experience of the author with such work, he has enabled me to do just that.”
—Mike Pertschuk, former chair, Federal Trade Commission

“It is an autobiography of intellectual exploration and of practical experimentation with the problems of social injustice. It is a project of the urgent transmission of the lessons learned undertaken under the duress of historical time which threatens catastrophe. It is a valedictory and an exhortation.”
—Joshua Dubler, Society of Fellows, Columbia University; author of Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison

“We’ve been talking about turning everyday life and its challenges into a meaningful political strategy for ages. Finally Common Preservation succeeds in doing it. Engrossing.”
—Ferdinando Fasce, author of An American Family: The Great War and Corporate Culture in America

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Praise

“Jeremy Brecher’s Strike! is a classic of American historical writing. This new edition, bringing his account up to the present, comes amid rampant inequality and growing popular resistance. No book could be more timely for those seeking the roots of our current condition.”
—Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize winner and DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University

“Magnificent—a vivid, muscular labor history, just updated and rereleased by PM Press, which should be at the side of anyone who wants to understand the deep structure of force and counterforce in America.”
—JoAnn Wypijewski, author of Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence

“An exciting history of American labor. Brings to life the flashpoints of labor history. Scholarly, genuinely stirring.”
—New York Times

“Splendid . . . clearly the best single-volume summary yet published of American general strikes.”
—Washington Post

“A magnificent book. I hope it will take its place as the standard history of American labor.”
—Staughton Lynd, author of Solidarity Unionism and coauthor of Labor Law for the Rank and Filer

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Praise

“Against Doom lays out key elements of a far-reaching, global-scaled, pragmatic, people-powered strategy to topple the power of the fossil fuel industry and the institutions behind it.” —David Solnit, author of Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World

“In Against Doom, Brecher has provided the climate movement with two essential tools: a moral framework for the struggle against fossil fuels, and an actual plan for victory. By blending sober social movement analysis with the fire of grassroots activism, this book shows that there is a genuine, and winnable, case against the fossil fuel economy—a case to be argued in the streets as well as the courtroom. It’s an essential volume for anyone committed to social change in the fight against climate change.” —Joseph Hamilton, Climate Defense Project

“Jeremy Brecher has managed to combine his passion for justice with the wisdom gleaned from decades of research, writing, and personal engagement in social movements and condense them into this short and accessible strategy document. Having benefited from his guidance on a variety of campaigns over the last twenty years, I look forward to collaborating with other organizers and activists in using this book as a blueprint for building a global climate insurgency.” —John Humphries, Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs

“A crisp, clear, and savvy synthesis of key concepts and ideas that will help the global climate justice movement to succeed. Brecher outlines many feasible climate solutions that should give all of us hope, despite the odds.” —Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

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Praise

“An exciting history of American labor. Brings to life the flashpoints of labor history. Scholarly, genuinely stirring.”
—New York Times

“Splendid…clearly the best single-volume summary yet published of American general strikes.”
—Washington Post

“One of the most important books on labor history published since World War II.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

“A magnificent book. I hope it will take its place as the standard history of American labor.” 
—Staughton Lynd

“Brecher’s stories are interesting and exciting, his prose colorful, his quotes well chosen.” 
—Texas Observer

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Toward a climate insurgency— A Review of Against Doom
• The Working-Class Mini-Revolts of the Twenty-First Century
• Summer Reading— A Review of Against Doom
• Strike!, Fifty Years and Counting
• Strike! Revised and Expanded: A Review in Marx & Philosophy
• Strike! Revised and Expanded: A Review
• Strike! Revised and Expanded: A Review
• Strike! Revised and Expanded: A Review
• Strike: A Review
• Jeremy Brecher’s Strike! in Booklist
• How a global nonviolent insurgency could prevent climate destruction
• Another Inconvenient Truth: Normal Channels Are Not Enough
• Against Doom: A Review in Friends Journal
• Against Doom: A Review
• Against Doom: A Review
• Against Doom in SFcrowsnews
• ‘Four new books for your ecosocialist bookshelf’

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Interviews

• From the Necropolis Strike to Striketober— Jeremy Brecher on Labor History Today
• Jeremy Brecher Discusses His New Book Common Preservation In a time of mutual Destruction
• Jeremy Brecher Webinar on Using Our Power to Stop Climate Disaster and Create a Just World
• Against Climate Paralysis— Jeremy Brecher on Against the Grain
• Climate Activists Must Devise Global Strategy to Challenge Power of Fossil Fuel Industry
• Jeremy Brecher Interviewed on Working Class History

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Mentions

• Flight Attendants Fight Back
• The Unbuttoned Mind of Jeremy Brecher
• Remembering the First Clash Between UAW and GM
• Jamelle Bouie: The Necessary Radicalism of Bernie Sanders

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Blog

• US vs. China
• The Gaza War: The Glory of the Polycrisis
• The New Hot Wars
• Dynamics of the Polycrisis
• “The Whole World Is in a Terrible State o’ Chassis”
• Student Gaza Protesters Are Enforcing the Law
• The Green New Deal: From Below or from Above?
• Popular Enforcement of International Law from Vietnam to Gaza
• How the Green New Deal from Below Integrates Diverse Constituencies
• ‘COP28 should be the most important meeting in the history of the world’