David Sirota

Liberals aren't the only ones with populist ideals. In fact, people and groups of all political persuasions have decided to take on big business, the federal government, and the wealthy. That's what political author David Sirota claims in his second book, The Uprising, anyway. The book is Sirota's travelogue of a journey across America talking with citizens on the front lines of populist movements. In it, he writes about a Seattle movement to unionize white-collar tech workers, a small New York political party that's starting to gain momentum, and the sinister root of Democratic super delegates. Even if it seems like the populist movement is more a trickle than the flood he sees, Sirota writes with optimism and flair. The stories he tells and the people he talks to are consistently more interesting than the parts of the book he injects himself into (he claims that the project was conceived while watching Lou Dobbs during a puke-heavy Las Vegas hangover), and the humor he sprinkles throughout tends to fall flat (we are so over Dick Cheney hunting jokes). That said, Sirota does a good job of not fixating on which side of the political divide his subjects fall on, but celebrates a battle cry for all populists.
Mon., June 16, 7:30 p.m., 2008