How to Start a Revolution

July 29, 2019
In this inspiring guide, journalist Duca considers the changes in the American political landscape after Donald Trump’s election, as more and more young people take direct political action. Noting that a Pew Research report finds “young people now comprise the nation’s largest voting bloc,” she explores this shift, drawing on interviews with young adults such as Rebecca Davis, who launched the program Rally+Rise in 2016 and helped overturn abortion restrictions in New York State, and Laura and David Hogg, brother-and-sister activists for gun control from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. She also argues that U.S. schools are failing to adequately educate children on civics and excoriates the “political-industrial complex” that stymies the electoral process with “crappy, binary choices” between two parties beholden to donors and lobbyists. She also shares some personal experiences, including being interviewed (and insulted) by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after publishing a critical article about Trump in Teen Vogue, and becoming temporarily estranged from her Republican parents after the 2016 election. Duca’s conversational prose (she refers to a minor factory accident injury as “seriously some Upton Sinclair shit”) and clear passion for equality allow her to galvanize without preaching. This call to action will resonate even with those who are not already involved in progressive politics. Agent: Monika Woods, Curtis Brown.

September 1, 2019
Combining memoir and cultural dissection, Duca analyzes how young people (including herself) can shape the political landscape of tomorrow. In 2016, Duca penned the TeenVogue op-ed "Donald Trump is Gaslighting America"; it went viral, and Duca has sustained social media prominence ever since. In this book, she outlines how millennials and Gen Z have a wealth of power in their votes and in their wallets. She interviews influential young people like congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and March for Our Lives co-founders David and Lauren Hogg; and advises readers toward political involvement with three straightforward steps: becoming informed, forming opinions, and putting beliefs into action. Duca is candid about how difficult it can be for young people, especially when they disagree with their parents (Duca's own are conservatives) or when they feel like the establishment is working against them (Duca was once obliterated in an interview with Tucker Carlson), but she is adamant that the American experiment is an unfinished project, ready for a new generation of hands to shape it. Fun, pithy, and intelligent.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)