Interview with Jeff Fleischer (+Contest)

As part of the Zest Books Rockin' Blog Tour, I'm reviewing the book ROCKIN' THE BOAT, giving a copy away, and interviewing the author Jeff Fleischer.  I previously covered author John Grant.

Jeff Fleischer is an author, journalist, and editor who is currently working on a book on climate change that he researched as an Alicia Patterson Fellow in New Zealand.  He's written over two hundred articles for publications such as Mother Jones and Mental_Floss.  ROCKIN' THE BOAT is his first book of nonfiction for teens.

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1. Have any revolutionaries inspired you personally?

Several of the people in the book are revolutionaries I always found inspirational. Nelson Mandela's the most obvious one because I remember watching him leave prison and followed his whole second act in life, but also Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, Kate Sheppard, and a few of the others.

2. Who did you most regret not getting to include in the book?

If I have to pick just one, I'll say George Johnston, who led the Rum Rebellion in Australia. There were also a lot of people I regret having to leave out who were more influential, but his story would have been fun to write about, and I'm unusually interested in Australian history.  

3. Were you unfamiliar with any of the revolutionaries before researching for ROCKIN' THE BOAT? 

I was at least reasonably familiar with everyone in the book, but there were a few I had to learn a lot more about before writing. For some, like Garibaldi or Arminius, I knew about their revolutionary actions, but didn't know much about their early lives.  

4. The revolutionary profiles are accompanied by terrific pictures. How were those images found? 
 
The publisher did some research found a round of images we were allowed to use in terms of royalties. I went through them and found a few replacements and made a few suggestions, but the vast majority of the credit goes to the publisher for finding great photos we were able to use.

5. What do you suggest inspired readers of ROCKIN' THE BOAT read (or do) next? 

Hopefully they'll find a few favorites -- or at least a few who are their favorites to read about -- and go read more about them. One of the hardest things about writing a book like this is trying to condense the lives of such accomplished people into a few pages each.
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Blog Tour Review: Rockin' the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries from Joan of Arc to Malcolm X

By Jeff Fleischer
Available now from Zest Books
Review copy

ROCKIN' THE BOAT: 50 ICONIC REVOLUTIONARIES FROM JOAN OF ARC TO MALCOM X wisely focuses on political revolutionaries.  Or, as the introduction puts it, "everyone here made their biggest impact by influencing (or trying to influence) who was in charge of their homeland or how those in charge treated their people."  Even when you eliminate art, science, and other revolutionaries, it is still a large field to cover.

The fifty people covered in ROCKIN' THE BOAT are profiled in chronological order (from birth year), from Hannibal Barca to Martin Luther King, Jr. The revolutionaries cover all six inhabited continents, and many women are represented, from Cleopatra to Emma Goldman.  Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle will get a kick out of the inclusion of Owain Glyndwr.

Each revolutionary is covered in about four pages, with an illustration and a couple of sidebars with interesting facts.  Given that ROCKIN' THE BOAT is a fairly slim volume (224 pages), it would have been nice for one or two more pages on each figure.  (Six pages each would've still been barely over three-hundred pages, fairly modest for most books aimed at teens nowadays.)

I may be an adult, but I still found that some of these iconic revolutionaries were new to me, such as Hone Heke, a Maori leader.  I know very little about New Zealand, aside from some vague knowledge about its colonization.  Those four pages gave me much more detail than I already had, plus names of wars, battles, people, and places to let me search for more.

I think ROCKIN' THE BOAT is a decent introduction to a variety of historical figures.  I like that journalist and author Jeff Fleischer included people regarded by history as villains as well as those regarded as heroes.  It helps provide a more balanced view, and invites us to question the division between the perceptions.  I wish it had a bit more depth, but the variety of the people profiles helps make up for it.  It might not have anything new for fans of revolts through the ages, but I'm not sure there are a ton of those hanging around.

Thanks to Zest Books, I have one copy to give away. Come back later today for an interview with the author.
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