Now We Have Your Attention, Jack Shenker
Now We Have Your Attention, Jack Shenker
List: $14.62 | Sale: $10.23
Club: $7.31

Now We Have Your Attention
The New Politics of the People

Author: Jack Shenker

Narrator: Jack Shenker

Unabridged: 10 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/19/2019


Synopsis

Bought to you by Penguin.

"One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers. If you want to understand why we are in this crisis, listen to the voices all too often airbrushed from the political conversation" OWEN JONES

Now We Have Your Attention makes sense of what is happening in British politics by taking a radically different perspective: the people’s.

From a warehouse in Manchester to a pub in Essex, from the outskirts of Glasgow to a racecourse in Durham, Jack Shenker uncovers the root causes of our current crisis and the future direction of British politics through the lives of ordinary individuals. Taking us deep into communities hollowed out by austerity and decades of economic disadvantage, among a generation crippled by precarious work and unaffordable housing, he shows where the chaos at Westminster ultimately springs from – and how disillusionment with it is fuelling a passionate engagement with politics of a completely different kind: local, personal, effective and utterly fearless.

Joining a ‘McStrike’ protest on a roundabout in Cambridge and a gathering of the London Renters’ Union in the aftermath of Grenfell, meeting hard-right bloggers in Newcastle and climate change protesters in Brighton, Shenker draws on exceptional access to campaign groups, activist movements and grassroots gatherings throughout the country – including unique access to Momentum, who have re-radicalised the Labour party from the outside in – to introduce us to the citizens and leaders of tomorrow: people who are changing things for themselves.

Inspiring and terrifying in equal measure, Now We Have Your Attention uncovers a revolutionary transformation in attitudes and behaviour, and a future that will shape us all.

(c) 2019, Jack Shenker (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Reviews

Goodreads review by Heather on September 12, 2019

An absolute must-read for anyone who gives a shit about taking the UK to somewhere better than we currently are. This book not only seeks to dissect the situation we currently find ourselves in, but also follows our main struggles back to their beginning(s), banishing once and for all the common neo......more

Goodreads review by Simon on May 11, 2020

A very timely exploration of the left-behind of British society and how they're coming to terms (or not) with late-stage capitalism. The actors range across the spectrum, as do the politics the various people embrace. It's such a current book, written just before the Conservatives' crushing win in th......more

Goodreads review by Ronan on October 12, 2023

Really resonates in its shirking of the typical format of modern political analyses: where usually we see lengthy diagnostics leading to wholly unconvincing, straw-clutching solutions, Shenker roots his work in the answers from the get-go, starting with progressive responses to our current challenge......more

Goodreads review by Gabriel on October 23, 2019

Extremely engaging and inspiring. Reminder that politics doesn't begin and end at Westminster......more

Goodreads review by Nick on December 06, 2020

Whilst politicians and the press presents the consequences of the 2008 financial crash in abstract data, graphs, and charts; Shenker humanises the real-life struggles of real people in late-capitalist Britain, and what they are doing to fight against it. As perpetuators of inequality ourselves comin......more


Quotes

One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers. If you want to understand why we are in this crisis, listen to the voices all too often airbrushed from the political conversation" OWEN JONES

An exploration of a nation in distress, touching on many of the key fractures that have opened in British society [and] the energy and vision of activists seeking to build something different … skilfully compiled through the first-hand stories of the protagonists … told with great sensitivity and empathy … deeply moving … [George Packer’s] The Unwinding is the closest comparison. Shenker is an excellent guide and an elegant writer … urgent' WILLIAM DAVIES, Guardian Guardian

For Jack Shenker, understanding the Brexit vote and the transformation of party politics means looking for answers where others have failed to tread... The author’s passion – and the defiance of his subjects – is infectious. You have to applaud him for finding the untold stories behind the rolling omnishambles that is British politics in 2019 Observer

A beautifully written piece of cultural analysis … does an excellent job of providing deep historical context … Shenker has a powerful ability to tell stories that are resonant and arresting … Hope is what makes Now We Have Your Attention distinctive. Shenker finds many groups that … are doing what only social movements can do: dramatically widen … the range of ideas deemed acceptable in public discourse and policy debate Times Literary Supplement

Jack Shenker’s elegantly written book not only describes how the calamity of Britain today was long in the making, it outlines a future about which one can reasonably feel hope" PANKAJ MISHRA

With scrupulous probing and sensitive interpretation, this penetrating inquiry lays bare the malaise of deindustrialization and austerity in Britain... The picture that unfolds is shocking, but also inspiring, with rays of hope that a better future may be within reach

Compelling… [Now We Have Your Attention is] a significant democratic intervention Prospect

Its central feature is its attentiveness – to people and to places often overlooked. In a work that chronicles inspiring acts of resistance, the care that defines Shenker’s prose feels like its own quiet act of solidarity… The new politics of the people, as the book’s subtitle puts it, may not yet have any definite form: it is emergent rather than dominant, contested, vulnerable. But it is the best hope we’ve got. And in Jack Shenker’s book, it has a document equal to its ambitions and to its fortitude Red Pepper