Plenty Good Room lays out in clear terms the hope of democratic socialism for a country ravaged by intensifying capitalism. If economic inequality, racial injustice, and liberatory spirituality compel you, this book will unleash your political and economic ingenuity for systems that offer plenty good room--not for just a few but for all.
Economic inequality yawns as wide as ever. Capitalism is working as it was designed: replicating an uneven balance of power, constraining life chances, and limiting imaginations. Those of us concerned about injustice often confine ourselves to issue-by-issue activism. The end result? Owners and investors win. But what if theres another way to organize our common life? What if we could become moral engineers who co-create the world we all deserve?
Plenty Good Room helps readers understand democratic socialism from the perspective of a Brooklyn pastor and political scientists civic awakening. As the former director of the Drum Major Institute, founded by Americas most famous democratic socialist, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Andrew Wilkes mounts a challenge to the endless growth, greed, and profiteering that surround us. Tugging on the threads of history and the Black radical tradition, Wilkes weaves a narrative of "plenty good room moments": times in communities and movements in which everyone had sufficient resources, human rights, and beauty. Through research, story, and accessible theology, Wilkes then introduces efforts pushing for reparations, public banks, community land trusts, and equitable policies. These stories show us that we can create a beloved community and cooperative commonwealth by envisioning an economy of enough for all--one rooted in antiracism, gender equity, and the God whose spirit falls on all flesh.
Rev. Andrew Wilkes is co-pastor of the Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn and the former executive director of the Drum Major Institute. He is the coauthor, with spouse Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes, of Psalms for Black Lives and the author of Freedom Notes. His work and voice have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Sojourners, among other outlets. He serves on boards for the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York and the Institute for Christian Socialism. A graduate of Hampton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Coro Foundations Fellowship in Public Affairs, Wilkes is a PhD candidate in political science from the CUNY Graduate Center.
