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Paul Loeb Explores the Soul of a Citizen

May 7, 2012

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Paul Loeb’s Homepage

Paul Loeb is the author of five books including Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in Challenging Times, The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, and Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus. Paul has written on social involvement for various publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.

In 2008 Loeb worked with the state Campus Compact affiliates to create and coordinate the Campus Election Engagement Project , helping 500 colleges and universities engage their students in the election. He’s now running the project again for 2012. Loeb also participated in the Department of Education’s 2011 roundtable on higher education and civic engagement.

Soul of a Citizen

“When my daughter asked from college how to be an effective grassroots citizen, I gave her Paul's book. The new edition is even more powerful.”—Josette Sheeran, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Program

“I stayed up half the night reading Soul of a Citizen, finding it a beautiful and morally transcendent work. Paul Loeb is a personal hero of mine who gives decency and generosity a political character, in the humblest of ways. The new edition is magnificent.”—Jonathan Kozol

With over 135,000 copies in print, Paul Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen has become a classic handbook for budding social activists, veteran organizers, and anyone who wants to make a difference—large or small—in these challenging times. An antidote to powerlessness, it has inspired thousands of citizens to make their voices heard and actions count—and then stay involved for the long haul. Assigned in hundreds of college classrooms, Soul has been particularly useful to get students involved in their communities.

Based on thirty-five years studying the psychology of social involvement, Loeb describes how ordinary citizens can make their voices heard and their actions count in a time when they often feel neither matter. Soul explores what leads some people to get involved in larger community issues while others feel overwhelmed or uncertain; what it takes to maintain commitment for the long haul; and how community involvement and citizen activism can give back a sense of connection and purpose rare in purely personal life.

At the heart of Soul of a Citizen are profiles of a broad range of people who've learned how to be active and engaged citizens. Read about:
• 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 or¬ganization—and eventually testified before the U.S. Senate.
• How Virginia Tech student Angie De Soto began so apathetic she spent the night of the 2004 election playing a drinking game instead of voting. She then became interested in global climate change and created a pioneering environmental sustainability plan for her once-apathetic campus.
• How the founder of the leading liberal group MoveOn, Joan Blades, befriended Michelle Combs, communications director of the highly conservative Christian Coalition. How 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.

Paul’s newest edition includes a wholly updated exploration of political burnout, including the dangers to engagement of citizens feeling let down by Obama, and how they can keep on to create change. It includes an updated look at the world of "virtual activism"—and how our new technologies can either increase face-to-face engagement or become seductive traps to replace it.

Other works by Paul Loeb include:

The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Hope in a Time of Fear

"A stirring collection of essays aimed at people who still want to believe that ordinary people can change the world."—Atlanta Journal Constitution

Paul Loeb’s anthology, The Impossible Will Take a Little While , mixes his own essays with the voices of some of the most eloquent writers and activists around including:
• Nelson Mandela
• Maya Angelou
• Arundhati Roy
• Tony Kushner
• Vaclav Havel
• Howard Zinn
And more…

Like chicken noodle soup for the civically engaged soul, Loeb’s anthology helps us to persist during tough times.

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Civic Engagement, Civic Learning, Education