100 Voices: Americans Talk about Change

Psychologist Mary M. Clare hit the highways to survey Americans of all ages and backgrounds for their thoughts on the state of the country. Beginning with the prompt, What does change mean to you? this book is a journey to listen to the opinions and beliefs that stretch across a nation. Clare scribes with the hope of opening a door for dialogue across our differences, allowing each of her subjects the space to tell their stories. Each one proves compelling in itself, while showing that the concept of change is a shared hallmark of American identity.

Themes come to the foreground via chapter titles and introductions and the result is homegrown definitions and ideas based firmly in the interests of everyday citizens. In the tradition of Studs Terkel, the book remains true to the people that compose it.

In a time of manic politics and the acute distortion of democracy, this book points back at usthe people of the United States. These one hundred voices call for the radical act of listening to one another. Here is a book that arises directly from the cultural zeitgeist to guide the reclaiming of democracy.

Mary M. Clare, PhD, is the psychological and cultural studies program director at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Her research and scholarship have focused on applications of psychology in schools with particular emphasis on indentifying and correcting institutionalized systems of oppression."