The editors Frank Lowenstein, Sheryl Lechner, and Erik Bruun have each been reporters, as well as editors, and they have written many articles on a wide variety of topics. This was a gift book.

This book’s front and back flaps provide a good, concise description: “Never before have so many varied, powerful documents of dissent been assembled in such an easily accessible, intelligent, and moving work. Voices of Protest takes a compelling look at the meaning and role of dissent in society. In the process, it confirms that individual and community action has tremendous influence over the course of nations.

“Protest, as defined by the editors, is dissent from authority that is publicly expressed and has an impact on society. More than 250 pieces, including essays, letters, newspaper articles, court transcripts, novels, song lyrics, poetry, photographs, and works of art, show just how much of today’s world was created by those courageous enough to demand change. ‘Looking back at the long course of history as this superb collection does, the voices of protest and dissent against . . . conventional wisdoms are often precisely what propels human civilization forward and allows it to become unstuck.’

“As the first comprehension collection of international documents of protest, Voices of Protest covers a wide range of topics, organized into seven main categories: Civil Rights, National Self-Determination, Economic Justice, Environmental Conservation, Religious Freedom, Peace and War, and International Policy Freedoms. It explores the roots of dissent and the myriad ways people have expressed their dissent, including extreme forms of protest. And it asks the provocative question: where is the line between socially beneficial protest and violent, unacceptable protest?

“Among the entries are such iconic pieces as Patrick Henry’s ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’ speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham jail, the photograph of the man standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square, the Seneca Falls Declaration of Independence demanding a woman’s right to vote, and even Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

“There are also dozens of lesser known, yet equally significant pieces including Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State, which in the 1890s called for the creation of Israel; César Chavez’s letter to the leader of the California grape growers protesting the plight of grape pickers; a scathing advertisement from Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council on the logging practices of Kleenex’s parent company, Kimberly-Clark; a plea by Vitto Russo, founding member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), for civil rights for people with AIDS; and Justice Roy S. Moore’s impassioned defense of a Ten Commandments monument at the Alabama Supreme Court.

“The editors’ commentary places each section in the context of its time, highlighting its importance and impact.”

This collection has a 2-pp Foreword by Bill McKibben, a 5-pp Introduction by the editors, and the main body of the book consists of 3 Parts containing 13 Chapters. To be more explicit, I list next titles of these 3 Parts and 13 Chapters, with the number of pieces in each chapter shown in parentheses: PART I – The Roots and Roles of Protest – Ch 1: Dissent and Liberty (16); Ch 2: Modes of Protest (13); Ch 3: Roots of Dissent (15); PART II – Documents of Dissent – Ch 4: Civil Rights (32); Ch 5: National Self-Determination (21); Ch 6: Economic Justice (28); Ch 7: Environmental Conservation (24); Ch 8: Religious Freedom (26); Ch 9: Peace and War (21); Ch 10: International Political Freedoms (21). PART III – The Future of Protest – Ch 11: Limits of Societal Norms (14); Ch 12: Extreme Protest (12); Ch 13: The Experience of Protest (13). This totals 256 pieces – most written but some are a photo of great impact. Besides the collection’s Introduction, each chapter has its own brief introduction – including these gives 270 ‘sections’ (by which I mean pieces or introductions) that comprise the 541 pages, thus an average of 2 pages per 'section.'

With such short ‘sections,’ I found it very difficult to stop after reading a piece, since the following piece was usually on one of the two pages I had open before me, and seeing the next piece usually made me want to continue reading on, so I found myself stopping only at a chapter’s end. Of course, before I opened the book I had no idea it would be so hard to put down, although the book’s thickness had me choose other gift books to read first. The front cover of this collection urges one to look through it because of the nine well-known names on the cover: Martin Luther King, Jr., Emma Goldman, Socrates, Mohandas Gandhi, Rachel Carson, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Margaret Sanger, and Ronald Reagan. I’ve seldom before had a thick book whose cover and chapter titles both made it a hard-to-put-down book. I give my very highest recommendation to this book. Think six stars!