THE QUIET BEFORE

An engaging treatise on the power of communication in social movements, historically and in our current moment.

Pulling together carefully documented research, Beckerman—a New York Times Book Review editor whose 2010 book, When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone, won both the National Jewish Book Award and the Sami Rohr Prize—traces the lineage of how human connection is formed through media, from the 1600s to the present day. Starting in Aix-en-Provence in 1635 with the scientific inquiries of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, a little-known but hugely influential polymath, the author explores the story of how humanity has been shaped by the vigorous exchange of personal letters, the efficacy of revolutionary petitions as forms of activism, the proliferation of broadly shared manifestos, and the effects of publications meant to promote self-expression and subvert censorship—e.g., samizdat magazines that circulated around the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ’70s, which were able to “unify the community of dissident artists and writers then increasingly under attack.” Beckerman traces the histories of these movements to show how humans continue to form the significant connections that create important change. Tracking their ups and downs over the decades, the author addresses a wide variety of topics. Most relevant to current issues include the Riot Grrrl zines in the 1990s; how social media influenced the Arab Spring uprisings; growing White supremacist actions in the U.S.; the Black Lives Matter Movement; and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In each chapter, Beckerman dives deep into a particular medium and the methods that did and did not work for the participants of the movements described. With a sharp eye for telling detail, the author uses direct, at times explicit, quotes from primary sources. At times witty, at times cautious, the text is sincere and thoughtful as Beckerman questions what it has meant to form a community in the past and what it means today.

An invigorating text ripe with pertinent information about the methods of connection that can lead to real change.