Title: Blueprint for Revolution
Author: Srdja Popovic and Matthew Miller
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 288
Rating: 3.75/5
This book reads more like a series of individual essays than a cohesive whole, but that doesn’t make it a bad book. In fact, if you’re interested in the modern history of civil disobedience and peaceful protests, this is a pretty good place to start, in part because Popovic led one of them himself.
It gets a little repetitive from time to time and the writing is occasionally clunky, such as when the authors say “I don’t know if you’ve heard about so-and-so” about twenty pages after talking about them. The little niggles like that here and there just pulled me out of the book and contributed to the way it felt more like a series of essays than a comprehensive non-fiction book.
I’m also not actually about to go and start a revolution, as tempting as it is. Still, it was interesting enough to read and I’m sure there are a few bits and bobs that I can use in my writing. Sure, it’d be a good idea to read this if you’re planning on organising protests or starting a movement, but it’s also not a bad little read if you just want something a little different and if you like learning.
It’ll also help if you have a reasonably understanding of recent history. The book takes us all over the world, and it was interesting to read about events that I remembered happening or that were otherwise somehow relevant to me. For example, the stuff about the Tiananmen Square protests was interesting because that happened around the time I was born.
