Danny Goldberg

Liberals with Attitude is such an eye opening look at 1990s activism and the political climate surrounding the Rodney King beating. What really stood out to me was the way Danny Goldberg takes you behind the scenes of the movement. Instead of only focusing on the big moments, he brings attention to the people, the conversations, and the internal struggles that shaped the fight for justice in Los Angeles. I always appreciate books that show the human side of activism because it makes history show more feel alive and personal, not just something we read about from a distance.

I also really loved how clearly the book connects the energy of the 90s to what we are seeing in the world today. So much of the activism happening now is part of a much longer story, and this book really highlights those roots. It reminded me that the push for justice, equality, and accountability has always required courage, community, and constant pressure from ordinary people who care deeply.

Danny Goldberg’s perspective is thoughtful, reflective, and grounded in real experience. If you want a deeper understanding of political organizing, social justice, and the forces that shaped modern activism, this book is a meaningful and powerful read. It gives you context, insight, and a reminder of how important it is to keep showing up for what matters. show less

Bloody Crossroads 2020: Art, Entertainment, and Resistance to Trump by Danny Goldberg is like an insightful diary of the intersection of popular culture and politics as they joined forces to oppose Trump.

Like the title says, this is a book about resistance to Trump, so any call for equal time for celebrities who supported Trump is both a misunderstanding of what the book is as well as an indication of the gross misunderstanding of what "balanced" has come to mean in journalism, namely giving show more equal time and space to viewpoints that are demonstrably false or pointless.

While to some this may seem like a list, I think that is overstatement. It does cover a lot of comments, tweets, and events in a short volume but these are chronologically organized (which makes far more sense than a call for a thematic format) with commentary linking them. Part of the value in this is seeing how things played out in real time, not looking back on the year as a whole piece and putting things together by theme. When you see that a particular tweet was the day before or the day after something else, that is as important, for an active reader, as having a writer hold our hand and point out each and every juxtaposition.

I do think this book will age very well. Specifically because of its almost diary-like form it will be a great source for future researchers who want to put the many comments and events of the year into a relationship with each other. While a tweet may, for example, be most closely related topic-wise to something that happened a week or two before, it may have been triggered by something that happened that day but on an entirely different topic. So ultimately thematic works, of which there are already plenty, and chronological works will be used together to make a more holistic narrative of the year 2020.

Highly recommended for those who remember most of 2020 as a jumble of crisis after crisis but would like to take a look at it in a more "as lived" manner. Perhaps not quite so highly recommended for those who think a book about resistance to Trump needs to give his supporters equal space, or those who think of a diary as a list and are incapable of making connections on their own with some assistance from the author.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing. show less

As a researcher delving into systemic racism and institutional authority, Goldberg's account sparked both admiration and irritation. The collaboration between Mayor Bradley, the ACLU, and activists resonated with sociological concepts of intersectional solidarity—however, I felt a sense of unease regarding the similarities to current battles against police violence. Goldberg’s insider insights bring to light the strategic negotiations (such as utilizing media and political tactics), but show more the emotional burden placed on Black communities—whose suffering was often used as leverage—remains a troubling aspect. While the book’s emphasis on structural changes (like charter revisions) is commendable, its celebration of center-left alliances may overlook the essential work done by grassroots activists. show less

In "Bloody Crossroads 2020", Danny Goldberg provides us with an invaluable source of contemporary history, a concise and pithy survey of the last year of the Trump presidency and of the efforts by those on the cultural front line to make sure it was the last of his dismal regime. We are living in such weird times that it is a service to history that scholars, and readers in general, of the future, will have a book such as this that documents that the bizarre events of these times really did show more happen.

Goldberg begins with a brief history of resistance by American popular culture to fascism, starting with Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film "The Great Dictator". In the film Chaplin uses a satiric parody of Hitler as "Adenoid Hynkel" to both ridicule the Nazis and warn Americans of the danger of ignoring their threat to democracy.

Donald Trump had already demonstrated that he is a misogynistic, racist homophobe before his election in 2016, but his reference to "very fine people on both sides" after the deadly neo-Nazi riot at Charlottesville in 2017 alerted many Americans to the fact that he poses an existential threat to democracy in the United States. This became more obvious in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, as many American entertainers, from Bruce Springsteen to Harry Belafonte, took up the cause of Black Lives Matter, and Trump's campaign appealed to the blatant racism of the MAGA base.

Fortunately, Trump lost the 2020 election. He refused to accept defeat and instead incited the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He is still very dangerous, but the "Red Wave" of 2020 was more like a ripple. Perhaps there is hope for American democracy after all. show less