Ben Dangl
Ben Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007), which has been published in Spanish by Plural Editores in Bolivia and in Tamil by The New Century Publishing House in Tamil Nadu, India.
Dangl has worked as a journalist covering politics and social issues in Latin America for over six years, writing for publications such as The Guardian Unlimited, The Nation Magazine, The Progressive, Utne Reader, CounterPunch, Alternet, Common Dreams, Z Magazine, La Estrella de Panama and dozens of other media outlets. He has received two Project Censored Awards from Sonoma University for his investigative reports on US government and military intervention in Latin America. He has also been interviewed on a variety of news programs including the BBCand Democracy Now!.
Dangl teaches Latin American history and politics and globalization at Burlington College in Vermont. He is the founder and editor of Upside Down World, a publication on politics and social movements in Latin America, and works as the editor of Toward Freedom, a progressive perspective on world events.
His forthcoming book Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press: 2010) is due out in August. Dangl is available this fall to give talks based on the book:
Dancing With Dynamite: Grassroots social movements played a major role in electing new left-leaning governments throughout Latin America, but subsequent relations between the streets and the states remain uneasy. In Dancing with Dynamite, Benjamin Dangl explores the complex ways these movements have worked with, against, and independently of national governments.
Recent years have seen the resurgence of worker cooperatives, anti-privatization movements, land occupations, and other strategies used by Latin Americans to confront economic crises. Using original research, lively prose, and extensive interviews with farmers, activists, and politicians, Dangl suggests how these tactics could be applied internationally to combat the exploitation of workers and natural resources. He looks at movements across the Americas, drawing parallels between factory takeovers in Argentina and Chicago and battles over water rights in Bolivia and Detroit. At the same time, he analyzes recurring problems faced by social movements, contextualizes them geopolitically, and points to practical examples for building a better world now.
What People Are Saying
“Ben Dangl takes the reader on an unforgettable and inspiring journey through Bolivia and neighboring countries, providing a window on the revolutionary struggles of the poor and dispossessed, and particularly on the resurgence of indigenous resistance and leadership.” —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War
“Most Americans know nothing of Bolivia, an ignorance that only plays into the hands of empire. Ben Dangl’s book is both informative and inspiring, a cure for the apathy that grows from that ignorance. A must-read for those already interested in solidarity with Latin America and indigenous people.” —Tom Hayden, author of The Zapatista Reader and Street Wars
“Ben Dangl has found himself under the skin of the Bolivian freedom struggle: he accurately represents its constraints, its opportunities, and its hopes. On your feet, Bolivia! We’re ready to march with you.” —Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
“With lively narrative and unpretentious but intelligent analysis…The Price of Fire is not yet another bleak “tell-all” account of globalization, its pages are filled with stories of resistance, struggle and, above all, hope.” —Teo Ballvé, editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas and co-editor of Dispatches from Latin America
“With great empathy and lucid prose, Dangl captures the exemplary courage that has put Latin America in the vanguard of the new internationalism and has made it one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dismal global landscape.” —Greg Grandin, author of Empire’s Workshop
Upcoming Events
| Date | City | Location | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09/24/10–09/26/10 | Ben Dangl in Baltimore, MD | Baltimore Book Festival | United States |
