THE HARD WORK OF HOPE
A Memoir
BY MICHAEL ANSARA
The Hard Work of Hope takes you into the heady days of the 1960s and 1970s activism, chronicling the hopes and strategies of the young people who created the movements that rocked the country.
Michael Ansara was on the front lines. In this fascinating memoir, he traces an arc of discovery: from the hope and moral clarity of the civil rights movement to the ten-year struggle to end the war in Vietnam, with its sit-ins, marches, confrontations, and antiwar riots.
Ansara takes the reader into the minds of the activists detailing their successes as well as their mistakes. The Hard Work of Hope shows how he learned to become a more effective organizer and build the Massachusetts Fair Share organization. The book explores issues that remain urgent. How does a movement build support when large parts of the country are opposed to its goals? How do you connect with people who disagree with you? How do you build organizations that unite across racial lines? How can we make progress on the unfinished business of the hard work of hope?
Coming this July from Cornell University Press
Pre-order your copy today: [ Publisher ] [ Amazon ] [ Bookshop ]
Advance praise for The Hard Work of Hope
“Overflows with passion, humor, and insight about the joys and agonies of organizing to stop the Vietnam War and to change America in fundamental ways...”
— Michael Kazin, professor of history, Georgetown University and editor emeritus, Dissent magazine
Mass Fair Share members picketing, 1978. Courtesy of University Archives and Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts, Boston: Ann Raszmann Brown Community Organizations Photographs.
Vietnam, 1966. Larry Burrows / LIFE Picture Collection / Shuttershock
“Today there’s a renewed interest among young people in organizing and direct action for racial, economic, and climate justice. It would be a loss if these activists had to “reinvent the wheel” without learning from a previous generation’s victories—and its mistakes. Michael Ansara, one of that era’s most effective organizers, led movements across civil rights, anti-war, and economic justice campaigns. There is no better place to start to learn the lessons of the past than Michael Ansara’s The Hard Work of Hope.”
—Richard Rothstein, author The Color of Law
“Michael Ansara’s memoir is a beautifully rendered, brutally honest narrative of a remarkable life. The book is many things: a page-turner of an autobiography, a manual for effecting social change, a chronicle of a remarkable era. For a new generation of activists, the book contains invaluable lessons forged through inspiring successes and devastating failures. For those of us fortunate to have lived through those times, the book evokes real nostalgia for magical moments when change was in the air and anything seemed possible. “
—Jeffrey Mayersohn, Harvard Book Store
First Boston march against the Vietnam War, October 1965. Samuel B. Hammat courtesy of the Boston Globe Library Collection at Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections
“This memoir revives the spirit of the movement of the 60s and 70s, with organizing insights, warm human portraits and important lessons for today.”
—Heather Booth, Founder, Midwest Academy
“The Hard Work of Hope tells a remarkable story of how a young man, of Syrian-Lebanese descent, inspired by the vision, courage, and creativity of the American Civil Rights movement becomes an activist and evolves into one of his generation's most effective community organizers.”
--Kenneth Reardon, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Freedom Summer, 1964. Photo by Ted Polumbaum/Freedom Forum’s Newseum Collection.
“Michael Ansara’s book is just about unique in describing organizing not just as an essential political craft, but as a way of life — he brings the texture of that life fully and vividly before us without bravado or hand-waving. The Hard Work of Hope is the most perceptive account I’ve ever read of the culture of organizing—its strategic thinking, its dilemmas, its rhythms, its promises, its perils, whether organizing against a monstrous war or on behalf of the public’s material needs. A must-read account from the Sixties forward.”
—Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage
About Michael
Michael Ansara has dedicated his life to activism and organizing, beginning with the civil rights movement of the 1960s and serving as a regional organizer for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He spent a decade organizing opposition to the Vietnam War. For the next 15 years he was a community organizer, including as Executive Director of Mass Fair Share, a uniquely popular community-based, statewide citizen’s organization fighting for economic justice. Michael has also worked on political campaigns, coordinated voter registration efforts, and trained numerous organizers.
In addition to his activism, Michael has successfully owned and operated two businesses. He is a co-founder of Mass Poetry and serves on the board of the Redress Movement as well as the organizing team for Volunteer Blue.
Michael is also an accomplished writer, with poems published in numerous journals and essays appearing in Vox, Arrowsmith, Solstice, and Cognoscenti. His first poetry collection, What Remains, was published in June 2022 by Kelsay Books. He lives in Carlisle, MA, with his wife, Barbara Arnold, and takes great joy in his three children and six grandchildren.
Photo by Liz Linder