The Alternative: And How We Build It

(Hardback)

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Description

Owen Jones's bestseller The Establishment exposed the elites who run our lives. Now The Alternative shows us what we can do about it We know our world's unequal. But, says Owen Jones, it doesn't have to stay that way. No status quo simply dissolves of its own accord- it must be replaced with something else. Without a real alternative that attracts the belief of millions of people, things will stay the same, if only because it's impossible for many to imagine things looking any different. The Alternative tells us that change is possible, desirable and even inevitable - if we want it. Owen goes in search of the people who are already making change happen- from the US and the UK to Latin America, from the struggles of Hungarian and Turkish dissidents working against authoritarian governments to the millions-strong anti-austerity movement in Spain. On his travels, he gathers evidence on how an economy can be built for the many rather than being a racket for the few; how we can reboot welfare states, education systems and health services for the twenty-first century; and, last but not least, how we can build enough decent homes for people to live in. All this, he shows, must happen through renewed democracy- it is only democracy that can take on inequality and injustice. There is an alternative. We just have to learn how to make it happen. This book shows us how.

Reviews

I'll never look at UK class politics in the same way -- Naomi Klein on THE ESTABLISHMENT * Guardian Books of the Year *
A truly necessary book -- Philip Pullman on THE ESTABLISHMENT
An eye-opening state-of-the-nation book -- Armando Iannucci on THE ESTABLISHMENT * New Statesman Books of the Year *

Author Bio

Owen Jones was born in Sheffield, grew up in Stockport and studied history at Oxford. His first book, the international bestseller Chavs, was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and chosen as one of The New York Times top 10 non-fiction books of 2011. In 2013 he won Young Writer of the Year at the Political Book Awards. His second book was the bestselling The Establishment- and How They Get Away With It, an expose of Britain's powerful elites. He is a columnist for the Guardian and a frequent broadcaster.