How to Change the World

February 18, 2013
It’s easy to feel ineffectual amid the much-publicized exploits of the movers and shakers of the world, but broadcaster and journalist Flintoff (Comp: A Survivor’s Tale) argues in this installment of the School Of Life series that anyone can make a difference. Using a range of real-life examples—from the fall of the Berlin Wall (“when enough people came, the soldiers had to let them through”) to the solitary stand of resistance by “Tank Man” in Tiananmen Square—the author shows that the secret to making an impact isn’t restricted to monumental acts of aid. Rather, Flintoff insists that people must align their passions and values with the greater good, brainstorm about ways to help, and plan ahead. The book also includes practical advice about how to get the most out of your charity dollars, and an appendix of “198 Ways to Act” (excerpted from Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action) will provide plenty of fodder for conversation between burgeoning activists. The optimistic approach is refreshing, but in an attempt to reach a wide audience, Flintoff tends to water down his prescriptions and advice. Still, as a first push toward directing one’s energies outward, this is an encouraging primer. Photos. Agent: Macmillan (U.K.).

May 1, 2013
The latest title in the publisher's School of Life series aims to be a guide to social and cultural change. Any guidebook with a title like How to Change the World that is also sized in such a way that it could fit comfortably in a handbag is going to need to make some assumptions about what needs changing and why. Without space to devote to arguing why things should change in certain ways, the remaining text needs to present a "how" that can be adapted for different aims. Journalist Flintoff (Sew Your Own: Man Finds Happiness and Meaning of Life--Making Clothes, 2010, etc.) largely succeeds in that his ideas are divorced from particular ideological goals, for the most part. In general, the author focuses on finding ways to make changes on a personal level--approaches to "being the change you want to see in the world." The strongest writing comes when Flintoff hews to the fine line between starry-eyed idealism and pragmatic, here's-the-five-steps-to-take detailing. His chapter on identifying values is especially thoughtful, providing clear direction on discovering the intersections between which values we derive from the culture and which we can find from within. Occasionally, the author veers over the line into dreaminess; much is made of engaging with the community around you, engaging with neighbors, which suggests an openness to engagement that may not be reciprocated on the other side. All too often, this brand of idealism in activism can come across as naive, but Flintoff's writing grounds that idealism in the idea that changing "the world" can have multiple meanings, each of them equally important. A credible book to inspire even the most cynical among us.

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