Social power is necessary for human health.
Physician and author Susan Rosenthal reached this conclusion after decades of research, observation, and activism.
In POWER and Powerlessness, she explains that most people lack the healthy, fulfilling lives they deserve because they are kept divided and powerless, and they mistakenly accept this state of affairs as natural or self-inflicted.
Written for a popular audience, POWER and Powerlessness asks, then answers, four basic questions:
- What’s going on?
- How did this happen?
- Why do we put up with it?
- What will it take?
Original, hopeful, impeccably researched, this book explains:
- Why human health depends on strong social bonds.
- How capitalism disrupts social bonds by dividing humanity into classes.
- How disrupted social bonds form the link between individual and social problems.
- How the medical system manages human misery instead of ending it.
- The key obstacles to social change.
- How the working class can organize itself to transform powerlessness into the power to change the world.
Reviews
Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States
I think you’ve written something powerful and important. And I like your style, clear, approachable. I hope it will be widely circulated.
Richard VanHorn, Colorado, United States of Amnesia
Absolutely fantastic handling of the most important subject facing humankind. Thank you very much for your enlightened compassion.
Todd Jordan, UAW Local 292
Every UAW member needs to have a copy on their coffee table.
Jeff Schmidt, author Disciplined Minds
Your thesis that “social power is necessary for human health” is a great insight. I hope that many people read this book, because they will benefit from the deeper understanding of society that it provides.
Patricia Campbell, Independent Workers Union (Ireland)
POWER and Powerlessness will inspire all who long for a better world. Rosenthal demonstrates deep insight into the workings of the system, and her conviction that we can transform powerlessness into power will motivate many.
Sophie Hand, International Socialist Review, Sept.-Oct. 2006
POWER and Powerlessness insists quite clearly that there are no individual solutions. Social problems demand social solutions, and such solutions can only be achieved through organization and cooperation, by returning to our basic humanity. This book has the potential to reach the growing numbers of people who know that something is wrong and are seeking ways to engage in serious, transformational, revolutionary change.
Popularity: 9% [?]
