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9781250903693

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Reviews

""With great humility and boundless appreciation, Velshi honors his family's valor and convictions and proudly accepts the mantle of social activism, bringing tales of immigrant struggles and myriad injustices to light."" --Booklist (starred) ""A journalist's instructive family memoir provides a crash course in Indian diasporic history."" --Kirkus ""This family saga educates, entertains, and fascinates as a study of the Indian and Ismaili Muslim diasporas and of immigrants' countless contributions to their new homelands."" --Library Journal ""Ali Velshi is the soulful, smart, principled, passionate future of American TV journalism. His family's story is astonishing and inspiring in equal measure--what a surprising and wonderful book!"" --Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show and author of Prequel ""Velshi shares his noble inheritance, coming from a family of justice seekers and freedom fighters who endured British Colonialism, South African Apartheid, and discrimination, and who traversed continents to find safe harbor. He insightfully applies their ancestral lessons to our current challenges, writing in compelling, clear and incisive fashion about how to be responsible to the places we call home and the people with whom we share our planet."" --Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America ""A book of wisdom and humility that offers a different sort of defense of democracy, grounded in one family's lived experience on three continents, and informed by the lesson that freedom and responsibility work together."" --Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny ""This beautifully written origin story of one of the most brilliant and essential journalists of our time is so many things at once. It's an immigrant story, the story of a remarkable family, and one that shows what's possible when intellectual curiosity meets courage and commitment."" --Joy-Ann Reid, host of The ReidOut on MSNBC ""Small Acts of Courage is that rare paradox: a concise epic. Spanning continents, generations and cultures, this beautiful book is not simply a chronicle of Ali Velshi's Americanness, but of the long, winding path that led him to it. In a moment defined by polarities and recrimination, the story he tells here of heritage and community could not be more important."" --Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School ""Through the captivating, compelling story of his immigrant family's courageous hundred-year plus journey to freedom across five countries and three continents, Ali Velshi distills to its essence the genius that is American democracy and sounds an alarm warning us of the existential threats facing it today. Velshi urges us to subscribe to the democratic process and exercise our muscle of citizenship, lest it atrophy; the growing cynicism over our national politics is a luxury Americans cannot afford at this moment when our democracy is teetering on a knife's edge."" --J. Michael Luttig, former judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ""A vital reminder that democracy thrives on the sum of our individual actions. Velshi's narrative is both a personal tribute and a universal call to action, reminding us that no matter how small our efforts, they are all essential in shaping a fairer world. This book reinforces what I already knew from personal experience: our collective pursuit of justice is long, arduous, and often without immediate reward, but it is crucial nonetheless. An inspiring read for anyone committed to the principles of democratic integrity."" -- Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, U.S. Army (Retired)

Author Information

ALI VELSHI is an award-winning journalist, the host of Velshi, a chief correspondent for MSNBC, and a weekly economics contributor to NPR's Here and Now. He hosts the Velshi Banned Book Club on MSNBC, and the Velshi Banned Book Club podcast. He is known for his immersive on-the-ground reporting and his interactive discussions with small groups, which form part of his ongoing series Velshi Across America. He previously worked as an anchor and correspondent for Al Jazeera America and CNN. Born in Nairobi and raised in Toronto, Velshi holds a degree in religion and an honorary doctorate of laws from Canada's Queen's University. He serves on the boards of the National Constitution Center, the Chicago History Museum, the X-Prize Foundation, and the Philadelphia Citizen. He is the author of Gimme My Money Back and The Trump Indictments, and coauthor of How to Speak Money. Velshi has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards, and is the recipient of two National Headliner Awards and a Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award.

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