IF WE BURN: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

The fascinating history of a decade aflame―and what we can learn from its embers.

"Disturbing and exhilarating." ―New Yorker

From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. Acclaimed journalist Vincent Bevins carried out hundreds of interviews around the world, guided by a single, puzzling question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?

The result is a stirring work of history that connects events in a dozen countries and reveals that conventional wisdom on revolutionary change is gravely misguided. From the so-called Arab Spring to Gezi Park in Turkey, from Ukraine’s Euromaidan to student rebellions in Chile and Hong Kong, Bevins provides a blow-by-blow account of street movements and their consequences, recounted in gripping detail.

In this groundbreaking study of an extraordinary chain of events, protesters and major actors look back on successes and defeats, offering urgent lessons for the future.

Vincent Bevins is an award-winning journalist. He covered Southeast Asia for the Washington Post after serving as the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Bevins previously worked for the Financial Times and now contributes to outlets like the New York Times Magazine and the London Review of Books. His first book, The Jakarta Method, came out in 2020.