[What We’re Reading] The Impossible Will Take a Little While by Paul Loeb

Paul Loeb, founder of the Campus Election Engagement Project, has a wholly updated edition of his political hope anthology, The Impossible Will Take a Little While. And free exam copies are available either through his publisher, along with his classic civic engagement study Soul of a Citizen, or first come/first served at the upcoming 2014 ADP/TDC National Meeting.

The Impossible explores how the leaders and unsung heroes of world-changing political movements have persevered in the face of cynicism, fear, and seemingly overwhelming odds. After 22 printings and adoption at hundreds of colleges—in every discipline, from first-year common readings to graduate seminars—Editor Paul Rogat Loeb has comprehensively updated the book. It explores what it’s like to go up against Goliath, whether South African apartheid, the dictatorships of Mubarak’s Egypt or Communist Eastern Europe, racial or sexual prejudice in America, or the corporations driving escalating climate change. These stories don’t sugarcoat the obstacles. But they inspire hope by showing what keeps us keeping on.

The Impossible creates a conversation among some of the most visionary and eloquent voices of our times, or any time: Think Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Vaclav Havel, Bill Moyers, and Howard Zinn. Alice Walker, Mary Pipher, Jonathan Kozol, Diane Ackerman, Tony Kushner, Bill McKibben, Paul Hawken, and Marian Wright Edelman. Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, Pablo Neruda, Audre Lorde, and Desmond Tutu. Loeb has added valuable new essays, worked with existing authors to update their contributions, and updated his own introductions to speak to a time when students need models for hope more than ever.

For more on this book or to purchase, click here.