DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

The Moment

Changemakers on Why and How They Joined the Fight for Social Justice

Steve Fiffer author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Georgia Press

Published:15th Nov '22

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Moment cover

They are as diverse as America. Young and old. Of color and white. Urban and rural. Immigrants and native born. They are students and teachers. Athletes and artists. Lawyers, doctors, politicians, farmers, architects, novelists, and more. Names familiar and unfamiliar. Superheroes, figuratively—and in one case, real! They have founded major corporations and grassroots organizations or struck out on their own.

But as diverse a lot as they may be, the people who tell their stories on these pages share one thing in common. Each is committed to fighting inequality and injustice. Each, too, can pinpoint a moment when they were moved to action, when it became impossible to sit on the sidelines and just watch: when the teacher uttered racial slurs, when no one in the college club looked like they did, when the city was on the brink of disaster, when the authorities came for their undocumented mother, when they discovered their ancestors enslaved people, when the cop stopped them in their own driveway, when there was no fresh food in their community, when their right to vote was threatened.

In The Moment, New York Times bestselling author Steve Fiffer presents an oral history from today's social justice activists—many of them still under thirty years old—that is pitch perfect for these dissonant times. First-person accounts, that will inspire us to act, offer a blueprint for making change and, perhaps, most importantly, give us hope for the future.

What an inspiring volume! As these activists, truth-teachers, door-knockers, and direct-investors show, there are an infinite number of ways to stem what one calls the 'bigot spigot' and move our society forward. Bravo!

* author of Thank you, Mr. Nixon *

To open the covers of this chorus of courageous words is to enter a world of such energy and hope that it will sweep you off your feet and lend you wings.

* editor of Choice Words: Writers on Abortion *

There comes a time in everyone's life when they have to decide whether to stand up for what they believe in or remain on the sidelines. Here Steve Fiffer introduces us to a wide variety of folks who answered the call to action and sought to bend the arc of justice. Their stories are poignant, inspiring, informative, and eye-opening.


The Moment is a book so needed in these times. In these pages, Steve Fiffer has collected the stories of individuals who so deeply believe in the aspirations of our country, and who have made it their life mission to make sure we live up to those ideals. Their words and their journeys are inspiring, and light the way for the rest of us.

* author of There Are No Children Here and other books *

The impressively diverse range of authors, time periods, and political movements make this book of conversational essays both a delightful and galvanizing panoply of awakenings to the need for social justice—and ways to work for it.

* coauthor, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights and the Flaws That Affect Us Today *

Every person has an opportunity to make profound and just changes to the world around them, both large and small, regardless and because of who we are. Through these profiles, Fiffer's The Moment illustrates how time and again, people of various backgrounds have stepped up to advance the work of social justice, compassion, and equity for all. This book is a great pick-up if you don't know where to start. The Moment requires us to act now.

* author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Educati

ISBN: 9781588384751

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

240 pages