The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America Book

The Politics of Protest offers both an historical overview and an analytical framework for understanding social movements and political protest in the context of American politics. The book suggests that protest movements, while clearly located in our nation's history from the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement, are by no means confined to the distant past. It argues that to understand our political system, and our social world, we need to understand protest movements. The Politics of Protest begins with a brief history of social movements in the United States from the development of the American Republic. It then moves on to an introduction of the social impulse to protest, considers the strategies and tactics of social movements, looks at the institutional response to protest, and finally considers the policy ramifications. Each chapter includes a brief narrative of a key movement that illustrates the topic in the chapter. These narratives--addressing such diverse topics as Dorothy Day's Catholic Workers protest against nuclear fallout drills in the 1950s, the Greensboro civil rights sit-in in 1960, and the so-called Battle in Seattle anti-globalization rally--draw students in and give them a clear sense of how and why this matters to them.Read More