The Alternative

The Alternative

And How We Build It

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

We know our world's unequal. But, says Owen Jones, it doesn't have to stay that way. No status quo simply dissolves of its own accord: it must be replaced with something else.

Without a real alternative that attracts the belief of millions of people, things will stay the same, if only because it's impossible for many to imagine things looking any different.

The Alternative tells us that change is possible, desirable and even inevitable - if we want it.

Owen goes in search of the people who are already making change happen: from the US and the UK to Latin America, from the struggles of Hungarian and Turkish dissidents working against authoritarian governments to the millions-strong anti-austerity movement in Spain. On his travels, he gathers evidence on how an economy can be built for the many rather than being a racket for the few; how we can reboot welfare states, education systems and health services for the twenty-first century; and, last but not least, how we can build enough decent homes for people to live in.

All this, he shows, must happen through renewed democracy: it is only democracy that can take on inequality and injustice. There is an alternative. We just have to learn how to make it happen. This book shows us how.

©2024 Owen Jones (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Reviews

  • I'll never look at UK class politics in the same way
    Naomi Klein on THE ESTABLISHMENT, Guardian Books of the Year

About the author

Owen Jones

Owen Jones was born in Sheffield, grew up in Stockport and studied history at Oxford. His first book, the international bestseller Chavs, was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and chosen as one of The New York Times top 10 non-fiction books of 2011. In 2013 he won Young Writer of the Year at the Political Book Awards. His second book was the bestselling The Establishment: and How They Get Away With It, an exposé of Britain's powerful elites. He is a columnist for the Guardian and a frequent broadcaster.
Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more