HOW TO TRICK PEOPLE INTO DOING THE RIGHT THING

A veteran activist uses history as a road map to a more progressive future in this collection of profiles.

As a self-proclaimed history buff who grew up in a devoutly Christian home, Kennard recognizes the disconnect between the lessons he learned in Sunday school (“honesty, justice…moderation, working in harmony with others”) and the contrasting set of behaviors exerted by humanity’s most influential leaders. Now, at over 80 years old, the lifelong environmentalist, whose activism helped lead to the formation of Earth Day in 1970, believes that Machiavelli had the right strategy. Those who want change should avoid “moralizing claptrap” and embrace “benevolent trickery.” In a world controlled by “greedy and corrupt oligarchs” and “faux populist zealots,” the answer to progressive reforms is not to hopelessly “bang on democracy’s front door, demanding to be let in,” but to “sneak in through the back door.” To this end, the book, which features photographs from various sources, examines people in history who changed the world through counterintuitive methods. For example, while White abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison alienated potential allies by burning copies of the Constitution, Black activist Frederick Douglass turned the anti-slavery movement upside down by using that very document, written by slave owners, as the center of his case for emancipation. Profiling over 30 individuals, from Julius Caesar and Cicero of ancient Rome to Ellen DeGeneres and Greta Thunberg of today, the work convincingly demonstrates that lasting, effective change often comes from unexpected places. It was, after all, a Southerner, Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a man whose career was built on anti-Communist hysteria, Richard Nixon, who normalized relations with China. There are many intriguing lessons to be learned here, including how Dwight Eisenhower used “mumbling” to conceal his intellect so that political rivals continually underestimated him. But some stories oversimplify complex histories. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, is credited with winning over the French by enthralling aristocrats with a coonskin cap, a clothing choice that “made the success of the American Revolution possible.” Moreover, a focus on “great” leaders obscures the role of grassroots movements in shaping history.

An engaging, if narrow, history of reform.