The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America

by David S. Meyer

The Politics of Protest offers both a historical overview and an analytical framework for understanding social movements and political protest in American politics. Meyer shows that protest movements, an integral part of our nation's history from the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement, are hardly confined to the distant past. He argues that protest movements in America reflect and influence mainstream politics and that in order to understand our political system--and our social and political world--we need to pay attention to protest.
The Politics of Protest opens with a short history of social movements in the United States, beginning with the development of the American Republic and outlining how the American constitutional design invites protest movements to offer continual challenges. It then discusses the social impulse to protest, considers the strategies and tactics of social movements, looks at the institutional response to protest, and finally examines the policy ramifications. Each chapter includes a brief narrative of a key movement that illustrates the topic covered in that chapter.
New to This Edition
* A new chapter on media and movements (Chapter 6: Protest and Communication: New and Old Media) that examines how media has changed in the past two decades, focusing in particular on online activism
* New discussions on such topics as the election of a black president, the emergence of the Tea Party movement, and the intensifying conflict regarding immigration policy
* More material on the successes of the gay and lesbian movement in promoting policy changes to marriage at the state level and in national military service

Genres: Politics, Sociology, Nonfiction, School

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 9, 2006

Reviews

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meyer gives a a good over of some of the common concerns and tactics used in social movements. As such it is less a history of social movements as it is a discussion of the various approaches of social movements through US history. One underlying theme is that the Constitution was designed to create conflict and to allow for protest when needed. As such one gets the sense that the US has created a special environments where social movements and social protest are allowed, but the mechanics of bringing about significant social change is made difficult by the balance of powers (Congress, Executive, Judiciary) and the complexity of that system.

[Lauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of great information, but it is dry and so painful to read. I had to read it for my Animal Protection as a Social Movement class and while it set the stage for understanding social movements in America, it really could've been written more interestingly.