Make Change: How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future

King, a journalist and Black Lives Matter activist, debuts with an impassioned guide to becoming an “effective change agent” in a time of “deep systematic widespread suffering and oppression.” Drawing on the work of 19th-century German historian Leopold von Ranke, King contends that human history “alternate[s] back and forth between improvement and regression,” and describes the current political moment—including Donald Trump’s election and the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.—as a reaction to America’s first black president. To bring an end to this period of social decline, King writes, activists must identify the “one single problem” they’re most motivated to solve; he traces his own involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement to his biracial background and the abuse he endured at the hands of white classmates in Versailles, Ky. In the book’s most effective sections, King offers directives (“whatever your gift is, bring it to the table”; “find your offline, real-life community, plug in, and get to work”) illustrated by his own experiences as an organizer. Readers familiar with King from his prolific social media presence will appreciate the book’s autobiographical details, while those new to his work may wish for a tighter focus on the nuts and bolts of organizing for change. Nevertheless, this fervent exhortation succeeds in making the case that the time for progressives to act is now. (Apr.)