They are outsiders who seek to redefine fields from mental health to diplomacy to music. They push boundaries and transform ideas. They include filmmakers crowdsourcing their work, transgender and autistic activists, and Occupy Wall Street's "alternative bankers." These people create and package themselves in a practice cultural critic Alissa Quart dubs "identity innovation."
In this book, Quart introduces us to individuals who have created new structures to keep themselves sane, fulfilled, and, on occasion, paid. This deeply reported book shows how these groups now gather, organize, and create new communities and economies. Without a middleman, freed of established media, and highly mobile, unusual ideas and cultures are able to spread more quickly and find audiences and allies. Republic of Outsiders is a critical examination of those for whom being rebellious, marginal, or amateur is a source of strength.
"A perceptive, analytical reporter. . . . Quart's profiles are thoroughly researched and admirably evenhanded. . . . . She effectively examines how outsider thinking can supplement, and in some cases supplant, mainstream methods."
Publishers Weekly, starred review
"With brief but telling glimpses of the many people she interviews, the author makes connections that wouldn't otherwise be obvious and places her subjects in historical context. Hers is a liberating vision of interlocking subcultures making themselves up as they go along."
The Columbus Dispatch
"Quart astutely identifies a cultural phenomenon that includes everyone from songwriter Jill Sobule to anti-establishment schizophrenics, and her careful reporting and vividly rendered characters make the book a vital, engaging read."
