In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation (Second Edition) constructs a progressive view of the politics of our time that is accessible to students, activists, and all who are trying to understand the threat to democracy by the Right. A longtime social justice worker from the South, Pharr blends personal anecdotes and contemporary cutting-edge analysis combined with the vision of a multicultural, multiracial liberation movement — to create a powerful call to action for each of us.
Electronic copies of this book can be downloaded for free in PDF and EPUB formats at www.suzannepharr.com because it is held in the Creative Commons. It is the author’s belief that every person needs access to critical information and resources at little to no personal cost. For more information about the Creative Commons visit https://creativecommons.org
About the Author
Suzanne Pharr is a southern queer feminist and anti-racist organizer. She founded the Women’s Project in Arkansas in 1981, was a co-founder of Southerners on New Ground in 1984, and was director of the Highlander Center from 1999 to 2004. Pharr is an organizer and political strategist who has spent her adult life working to build a broad-based, multiracial, multi-issued movement for social and economic justice in the United States. Since 1980, Pharr has been tracking the growth of a US authoritarian movement and providing political education about its goals, strategies, and leadership.
Pharr is the author of Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism (1988), In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation (1996), and Transformation: Toward a People’s Democracy (2021).
About the Editor
Christian Matheis is faculty in Community and Justice Studies in the Justice and Policy Studies Department at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Matheis specializes in scholarship and practice that bridge social and political philosophy, ethics, public policy, and direct-action organizing.
About Virginia Tech Publishing
We are Virginia Tech’s digital-first, open-access publisher. Based in the University Libraries, Virginia Tech Publishing (VTP) is committed to increasing the visibility, reach, and impact of research produced at the university. We publish scholarly and educational materials in multiple formats for wide dissemination and permanent preservation. In addition to full-service publishing, we offer a variety of specialized services to support the publishing needs of the Virginia Tech community.
How to cite this book
Pharr, S. (2025). In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/in-the-time-of-the-right
Pharr, Suzanne. 2025. In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/in-the-time-of-the-right
Pharr, S. In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation. Virginia Tech Publishing, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/in-the-time-of-the-right
Pharr, S., 2025. In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/in-the-time-of-the-right
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“This book is for students of all ages and all places, large and small, everywhere. It is for all of us who join in the work for social justice every day, especially those working on the ground at the community level. It is for those of us who think we have an imperfect, unfinished democracy which we honor enough to work hard to defend while we are building it”
Suzanne Pharr, In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation
Praise
Thirty years ago in her book in the Time of the Right Suzanne Pharr wrote about Yeats’s poem The Second Coming’ as prophecy that had come to pass, but it is Pharr’s own astute analysis of repression and her visionary work to build collective alternatives and a liberation culture that I hold to as prophecy in these times.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD, author of Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation is indispensable for all who refuse the nightmare of authoritarianism. With clarity and insight Suzanne Pharr analyzes the roots of the current crisis and offers a profoundly humane vision for our collective liberation.
Barbara Smith, Co-founder of the Combahee River Collective and author of The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom
We have never been in greater need of Pharr’s insightful analysis and vision for an effective, principled resistance than we are right now.
Sofia Ali-Khan, author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America
Watch the 1997 In the Time of the Right Speech
