Exam Copies of Soul of a Citizen New Edition Available

Posted by on November 9, 2009

[from Paul Loeb]

Thought you’d be interested in an updated edition of my civic engagement book Soul of a Citizen. It will be published March 30, but free electronic exam copies are available now by emailing forpaulloeb@gmail.com

Assigned on hundreds of campuses in every conceivable discipline and from first-year programs to graduate seminars, Soul has helped students of all backgrounds and perspectives learn to make a difference in their communities and in our country.  It has inspired them make their voices heard and actions count—and to begin journeys of involvement that could last their entire lives.

I’ve been working since January on a thoroughly updated edition. It keeps all the strengths of the decade-old original, but speaks as powerfully as possible to the very different challenges of our current time. I would love to send you an advance electronic exam copy if that would help you to consider assigning it.

Academic Exam Copies

If you’d like to get a free advance electronic academic exam copy, please email my assistant, Dr Erica Kay, at forpaulloeb@gmail.com  and she’ll be delighted to send you one. The book will be published and available in college bookstores March 30.

If you’d also like St Martin’s to send a physical exam copy when they’re printed a few weeks earlier, please include your mailing address, your position at the school, and the relevant course you teach or program you supervise. Erica will then pass on the information to St Martin’s, and they’ll send the books when they’re available.

Core Curriculum Adoptions

Soul’s original edition continues to teach wonderfully. I’ve gotten rave responses this past year in first year and other core curriculum year adoptions at University of Alabama, Florida Gulf Coast University, and other schools throughout the country.  At Georgia’s Kennesaw State, 2500 first-year students have just finished reading it, and faculty are excited about the discussions they anticipate. The book’s drawn rave responses from students in every conceivable discipline, of all political perspectives, and every academic level.

But it has been a decade and 100,000 copies since Soul’s 1999 release, so I’ve now created a wholly revised new edition for a new and different world. It keeps favorite stories like Virginia Ramirez, Rosa Parks, Pete Knutson, David Lewis, and Hazel Wolf. It keeps the core analytical material that’s worked so well–from the perfect standard to America’s historical amnesia. But it adds wonderful new characters, as described below, and wonderful new stories, including many of students and (as students have consistently requested), more on my own history of involvement. I’ve literally gone through every sentence, paragraph, and section to make sure the book speaks as powerfully as possible to the hope and challenges of our new time, and to the new interest of the student generation in civic engagement.

Pass It On

Below are a description and some advance comments. I’ll also update the online study questions at http://www.soulofacitizen.org/studyquestions.htm. So if you’ve assigned Soul with success before, or would like a powerful new book to inspire your students to get involved, I hope you’ll consider it, including for the all-campus adoptions where it’s engaged students so wonderfully. And please pass on this email to colleagues who might be interested.

Thanks
Paul Loeb

SOUL OF A CITIZEN: A NEW EDITION FOR A NEW WORLD

“Soul of a Citizen has inspired countless students, faculty, and other readers since its publication a decade ago.  Amazing as that book was, this new version is even wiser, deeper, and more inspiring.  Loeb has given even more soul to his wonderful work.”

—Thomas Ehrlich, senior scholar, Carnegie Foundation for Education, former dean of Stanford Law School and former president of Indiana University

“Soul of a Citizen has been a powerful resource to get thousands of students involved in their communities, giving them the opportunity to apply their learning in meaningful ways.  This updated edition is both timely and exceptionally useful to campuses that want to reclaim higher education’s central role in educating responsible, democratic citizens.”

—Carol Geary Schneider, President, American Association of Colleges & Universities

Here’s a bit more info:

Assigned on hundreds of campuses in every conceivable discipline and from first-year programs to graduate seminars, Paul Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen has become a classic of civic engagement. An antidote to powerlessness, the book has helped students of all backgrounds and perspectives learn to make a difference from immediate local issues to the largest global challenges.  It has inspired them to make their voices heard and actions count—and to begin journeys of involvement that may last their entire lives.

On March 30, 2010, eleven years and over 100,000 copies after Soul’s original publication, St Martin’s will publish a new edition for a new world, designed to address the challenges and opportunities of a very different time. Developed in consultation with faculty who’ve taught the book in every imaginable context, Soul’s new edition keeps the stories and lessons that have most inspired students to act. These include how Maine homemaker Alison Smith helped lead a path-breaking initiative for campaign finance reform “so my kids won’t grow up in a cynical world.” How, after an elderly neighbor died of the cold, Virginia Ramirez, a middle-aged Latina with an eighth-grade education, got involved in a San Antonio community or­ganization—and eventually testified before the U.S. Senate. And how David Lewis, an African American man who had served seventeen years in the California prison system launched a pioneering drug rehabilitation effort based on trying to give people, as he said, “the support they need, in a language they can understand.” It keeps the core analytical material that’s worked so well—like Loeb’s explorations of the perfect standard, the cynical smirk, and America’s chronic amnesia about social change. Loeb examines, for instance, how the myths surrounding the Rosa Parks story blur the reality that those who change history do so intentionally, by working together with others, and by persevering until they succeed.

Paul Loeb has mixed these classic stories with powerful new profiles and explorations of contemporary citizen involvement, on issues from the economy to global climate change. A few examples:

* How Rich Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was converted on global climate change by a prominent British climate scientist who is also a leading evangelical. Cizik said his shift “shook my theology to its core.” He went on to enlist other key evangelical leaders, like Rick Warren.

* How Virginia Tech student Angie De Soto began so apathetic she spent the night of the 2004 election playing a drinking game after not voting. Once a professor got Angie interested in global climate change, she created and ran a pioneering environmental sustainability plan for her once-disengaged campus.

* How a young Barack Obama began his involvement by speaking out during the student anti-apartheid movement—through a campaign at Occidental College launched by a former Green Beret. Whether students agree or disagree with Obama’s stands, the story underscores the power of citizen activism, since we never know where the person sitting in a classroom beside us will end up.

* How Maine college student Meredith Segal used Facebook to build a national volunteer effort that became the core of Obama’s initial campaign and then played a key role in his victory—all while continuing as a full-time student.

* How Michelle Combs, communications director of the highly conservative Christian Coalition, became friends with Joan Blades, founder of the leading liberal group MoveOn. Their friendship led to a joint campaign that saved the Internet as an open-access commons, instead of a medium to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Soul’s new edition also includes more on Paul’s personal journey, from his own student activism to a 15-state campus election engagement project, which he created and ran in 2008 through Campus Compact’s state networks, to help faculty and administrators involve their students. It includes a new exploration of political burnout, including how to prevent students from becoming cynical about democracy from possible disappointment with Obama. It includes an updated look at the world of “virtual activism”—and how new technologies can either increase face-to-face engagement and become traps to displace it. Loeb takes a classic of citizen involvement and brings it up to the present, so it can engage a student generation with more potential interest in public life than any in years.

“Soul of a Citizen has inspired thousands of young people to take a stand. It teaches them how to get past the barriers to act, and why their actions matter. It’s a powerful personal guide to get students involved, and the new edition is great.”

—Hans Riemer, Youth Vote Director, Barack Obama campaign, and former political director, Rock the Vote

“Soul of a Citizen was a valuable part of our 2009 program for several hundred first-year students. Many also participated in service projects, and the book gave them a hopeful vision of what they could accomplish. Soul is inspiring for any student eager to play a more active role in shaping their campus, their community, and their world. The new edition is even stronger.”
—Kevin Waltman, Co-coordinator, Freshman Learning Communities, University of Alabama.

“Since 2007, we’ve assigned Soul of a Citizen as the core text for our Foundations of Civic Engagement course, enrolling 700 students per year. We assign The Impossible Will Take a Little While to 250 students in our core senior seminars.  Our students love these books and tell me they are among the only ones they won’t sell back.  You are a household name on our campus, and the new version of Soul is even more powerful than the original.”
—Maria Roca, Department of Communication, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers FL

For an advance electronic academic exam copy, please email Dr Erica Kay, at forpaulloeb@gmail.com