Republic of Outsiders is the story of Americans who, freed of middlemen and armed with new technology, are able to make their unusual ideas go viral and disrupt the status quo. They include amateur filmmakers who crowdsource their work, scientists developing artificial meat, neurodiverse activists, and "alternative" bankers. These outsiders create and package new identities (a process Quart dubs "identity innovation"). They push the boundaries of who they--and we--can be.
Excerpted in O Magazine and The Nation, given a starred review in Publishers Weekly, chosen as a Flavorwire "must read," and placed on the "brilliant highbrow" quadrant of New York's Approval Matrix, Republic of Outsiders also was praised by Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock, as "an essential account of how and why fringe activism has become central to our culture and politics in a digital age."
"[Quart's] careful reporting and vividly rendered characters make the book a vital, engaging read."
--Psychology Today
"Instructive for those who do creative work, and even for people who are trying to engage in any kind of meaningful self-definition: Don't always accept other people's categories. You can always make your own."
--Fast Company
"With brief but telling glimpses of the many people she interviews, the author makes connections that wouldn't otherwise be obvious...a liberating vision of interlocking subcultures."
--Columbus Dispatch