Take Hold of Our History
by Harvey J. Kaye

A call to remember, redeem, and embrace the American radical tradition in favor of cultivating American historical memory and imagination, and making America radical once again.

The eighteen essays and speeches in Take Hold of Our History render a manifesto – a call to remember, redeem, and embrace the American radical story and tradition in favor of cultivating American historical memory and imagination and making America radical once again.

For too long we have allowed the right to hijack the past and suppress, efface, lie about, and/or appropriate the essentially radical story of America from the struggles of the Revolution to those of the Age of Roosevelt and the 1960s. And no less tragically, we on the left, apparently haunted by the worst of our national experience, have turned our back on our own story and deferred to the tales of conservatives and reactionaries. Fleeing from the past, we merely compound the tragedies and ironies of American history, for we turn our backs on both the nation’s democratic creed and radical imperative, but also the struggles from the bottom up, the struggles in which working people and others have laid hold of America’s revolutionary promise and succeeded in making the United States freer, more equal and more democratic, at times, radically so.

As Bill Moyers put it in 2008: “Here in the first decade of the twenty-first century the story that becomes America’s dominant narrative will shape our collective imagination and our politics for a long time.” The time has come for us to advance that narrative.

Reviews:
5 out of 5 stars: I've read all of Harvey Kaye's books and this one is just as energizing, just as thoughtful, and just as full of history and the vital things citizens of democracy need to know. In these dark times, if you're searching for a light run toward Prof. Kaye's books. ~ Sarah Sime, Amazon

5 out of 5 stars: An excellent look into the American political system and how we have shifted so far from our radical roots. Harvey Kaye yet again inspires readers to return to what made America great in the first place while captivating audiences with historical context. ~ Jamine & Moriah White, Amazon

5 out of 5 stars: If you're looking at this just buy it, trust me. Great research you can have without having to do any of the work... the author did it for us. Thank you kind Sir. ~ Brooke, Amazon

5 out of 5 stars: In order to understand the present moment in American history and to look toward the future with hope, it’s essential that we understand our history, our revolutionary past. This book explains the root of progressive thought in America all the way to our founding fathers and Thomas Paine. I love picking up a book that I can open and begin reading on any page! The essays are a great collections of writings and speeches by Professor Harvey Kaye. I could not agree with him more, we need a new story in America and we need leaders who tell that story honestly. This country was founded by revolutionaries and asThomas Paine once said it , we have it in our power to begin the world over again. This book offers serious reflection on our present moment and many quotable lines. Highly recommend. ~ Simon Grace, Amazon

5 out of 5 stars: Words we need today! Great collection from the author - specifically on reclaiming ideas like “American Exceptionalism” (which was commandeered by the right) and embracing an American tradition of radical action for the left. ~ Christian, Amazon

Standing at the intersection of the past and the future stands Harvey Kaye, our great radical historian. Kaye practices his craft in the tradition of E.P. Thompson and Howard Zinn, turning our attention to neglected individuals, moments and messages that illuminate our understanding of who we have been and who we are. Yet, Harvey Kaye brings to his scholarship a distinctive academic commitment, as readers of this fine book will quickly and surely recognize. He believes, correctly, that our revolutionary past provides the truest evidence that another world is possible. ~ John Nichols, The Nation

Harvey Kaye doesn’t just write about history, he uses history to show exactly where we are today - and where we could take it. He has the wisdom of a sage, the passion of a prophet, and the intelligence of a true patriot. And he writes with compassion and guts. ~ John Fugelsang, host of SiriusXM’s Tell Me Everything

Harvey Kaye is our essential and always engaging guide to owning our progressive history. America has a rich progressive social-democratic history that has been obscured by the Right and all too often ignored by the Left. But now, as Bernie Sanders leads a social-democratic presidential campaign, we have an opportunity to assert a new politics. Whatever your politics are, you need to know this history and argument. ~ Michael Brooks, The Michael Brooks Show

No one has ever loved a nation more or spanked it harder for straying from its premise than Harvey Kaye. ~ Norman Lear, TV/Writer and Producer (All in the Family) and Founder of People for the American Way

Progressives have often allowed the right to co-opt American values and history, distorting them for their own use. This collection is a call to arms for progressives to reclaim the mantle of patriotism and resist right wing authoritarianism with the only thing that has ever worked, a pro-worker progressive agenda. Harvey Kaye does the essential work of explaining why now is the time to be in the words of FDR: “fairly radical for a generation.” ~ Krystal Ball, Rising on Hill.TV

Harvey Kaye does it again, with a brilliant, historically-grounded, deeply insightful prescription to our nation's ills – grounded in what we already know works! Read, share, and act! ~ Thom Hartmann, The Thom Hartmann Show