I am a quotation junkie. I have over 600 quotation books of all sizes and ages. I'm also publisher of a progressive media site www.opednews.com and a quotations website, quotationscentral .com So when I say that this quotation book is a real treasure, it's with some authority.
There are plenty of quotations books-- maybe hundreds, that cover the broad swathe of being human.A lot of them list the quotations by the author. I find them far less useful than the ones that list by subject or topic. There are a few quotations books for liberals and progressives. This one is probably the best I've seen for people on the political left.
Quotation collections have been said to be flowers, or jewels, strung together. The stringer of this collection, Teishan Latner, has taken a very creative, unique approach to organizing the collection. The topics include:
-colonialism, Imperialism, Occupation, Empire,
-Nationalism
-Race, Racism,
-Slavery
-Indigenous People's strugge
-Civilization and Progress
-The Matrix-- Technology
-Consumer Culture, Materialism, Advertising
-Gaia-- the earth, environment, ecology
-Animals, animal liberation
-Resistance, strugge, rebellion
-Ain't No Power like the Power of the People, on political movements, social change work and activism
-Leaders
-Direct action, Civil Disobedience
and 40 more topics including language, media, spirituality, history, women, class struggle, prison, police...
Or use it for inspiration, to energize you when your mojo is slumping, to pump you up when you are about to embark on a mission or a day of canvassing.
Building an organization and talking to new members, how about Tennessee Williams quote, " The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It's inflammatory."
Or pretend this is 2006 and the Republicans run the congress, the whitehouse and the supreme court, and think of what Eldridge Cleaver said, "When fascism comes to the U.S., it won't be wearing swastikas-- it will be wearing red, white and blue and whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy."
I keep this book handy, on top of my computer.
If you'd like some ideas for more general quotation books, here's a list I created on Amazon.com.
