Book Selections

"How a national grassroots network fought a resurgence of the KKK and other fascist groups during the Reagan years, and how it laid the groundwork for today's anti-fascist/anti-racist movements."--

"Grounded in the lives of some of its most committed nonviolent activists, Incarcerated Resistance tells a story of anti-war resistance, what it means to "go to jail for justice" in the contemporary United States, and shows how identity matters in both the activation of prison witness, and as a key shaper of individual experience"--

We owe it to our fellow humans - and other species - to save them from the catastrophic harm caused by climate change. Philosopher Elizabeth Cripps approaches climate justice not just as an abstract idea but as something that should motivate us all. Using clear reasoning and poignant examples, starting from irrefutable science and uncontroversial moral rules, she explores our obligations to each other and to the non-human world, unravels the legacy of colonialism and entrenched racism, and makes the case for immediate action. The second half of the book looks at solutions. Who should pay the bill for climate action? Who must have a say? How can we hold multinational companies, organisations - even nations - to account? Cripps argues powerfully that climate justice goes beyond political polarization. Climate activism is a moral duty, not a political choice.

In response disparate groups quickly came together to organize against white nationalist violence and right-wing organizing throughout the Rose City and the Pacific Northwest. It Did Happen Here compiles interviews with dozens of people who worked together during the waning decades of the twentieth century to reveal an inspiring collaboration between groups of immigrants, civil rights activists, militant youth, and queer organizers. This oral history focuses on participants in three core groups: the Portland chapters of Anti-Racist Action and Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice, and the Coalition for Human Dignity. Using a diversity of tactics—from out-and-out brawls on the streets and at punk shows, to behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering—brave antiracists unified on their home ground over and over, directly attacking right-wing fascists and exposing white nationalist organizations and neo-Nazi skinheads. Embattled by police and unsupported by the city, these citizen activists eventually drove the boneheads out of the music scene and off the streets of Portland. This book shares their stories about what worked, what didn’t, and ideas on how to continue the fight.

"Our focus is on trauma as it impacts and applies to lawyers and clients in practice, legal education, courts and judges, and the legal system and profession as a whole. This book gives voice to only some of the many traumatic experiences that arise in all aspects of law. Unless we hear these voices, we cannot begin to address the many legal, ethical, moral, educational, juridical systems or other issues they raise even where we have tools to do so. The pursuit of justice means voices of trauma in the legal system deserve to be heard, individually and collectively, even when it's difficult to listen"--

"In the post-World War II period, students rebelled against the archaic university. In student-led movements, they fought for the new kinds of public the university needed to serve--women, minorities, immigrants, indigenous people, and more--with a success that had a profound impact on the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. Because of their efforts, ethnic studies, women's studies, and American studies were born, and minority communities have become more visible and important to academic debate. Less than fifty years since this pivotal shift in the academy, however, the university is fighting back. In We Demand, Roderick A. Ferguson shows how the university, particularly the public university, is moving away from "the people" in all their diversity. As more resources are put toward STEM education, humanities and interdisciplinary programs are being cut and shuttered. This has had a devastating effect on the pursuit of knowledge, and on interdisciplinary programs born from the hard work and effort of an earlier generation. This is not only a reactionary move against the social advances since the '60s and '70s, but part of the larger threat of anti-intellectualism in the United States."--Provided by publisher.

"Video for Change is packed with real-life stories from the fray, how-to guidance, and easy-to-use exercises. Clear and accessible, it provides a crash course in the basics of social justice video documentation and advocacy. The authors cover every aspect of filmmaking from technical guidance to strategic and ethical issues, making it indispensable for both amateur and professional filmmakers.;Readers are shown how to plan, film, edit and distribute; they are shown how to adopt an effective strategy so that their video makes a difference. The book is unique in that it also covers the practical ethics and responsibilities of social justice video-work and offers a global range of real-life stories to learn from."--Pub. desc.

Political acts are encoded in medial forms -- feet marching on a street, punch holes on a card, images on live stream, tweets -- that have force, shaping people as subjects and constituting the contours of what is sensible, legible, visible. Thus, these events define the terms of political possibility and create terrain for political actions. Sensible Politics: The Visual Culture of Nongovernmental Activism considers the constitutive role played by aesthetic and performative techniques in the staging of claims by nongovernmental activists. Attending to political aesthetics means focusing not on a disembodied image that travels under the concept of art or visual culture, nor on a preformed domain of the political that seeks subsequent expression in media form. Instead, it requires bringing the two realms together into the same analytic frame. Drawing on the work of a diverse group of contributors, from art historians, anthropologists, and political theorists to artists, filmmakers, and architects, Sensible Politics situates aesthetic forms within broader activist contexts and networks of circulation and in so doing offers critical insight into the practices of mediation whereby the political becomes manifest. Contributors include: Barbara Abrash, Negar Azimi, Ariella Azoulay, Amahl Bishara, Judith Butler, Eduardo Cadava, Jonathan Crary, Ann Cvetkovich, Faye Ginsburg, Sam Gregory, Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, Roger Hallas, Andrew Herscher, Sandi Hilal, Kirsten Johnson, Liza Johnson, Thomas Keenan, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Jaleh Mansoor, Yates McKee, Meg McLagan, Alessandro Petti, Hugh Raffles, Felicity D. Scott, Kendall Thomas, Leshu Torchin, Eyal Weizman, Benjamin J. Young, Huma Yusuf, and Charles Zerner.

In this compelling book, distinguished activist lawyer Francis Boyle sounds an impassioned clarion call to citizen action against Bush administration policies both domestic and international. Boyle, who has spent his career defending civil resisters, offers the only guide available on how to use international law, constitutional law, and the laws of war to defend peaceful non-violent protesters against governmental policies that are illegal and criminal. He focuses especially on the aftermath of 9/11 and the implications of the war on Afghanistan, the war on terrorism, the war on Iraq, the doc

"How can we build a better world? And why do so many people with privilege end up making things worse when they try to help? It's called the savior mentality, and Jordan Flaherty finds it in FBI informants, anti-sex-work crusaders, Teach For America corps members, and out-of-touch journalists. No More Heroes celebrates grassroots challenges to these saviors and highlights movements focused on real, systemic change from the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter." -- Publisher's description

Since the civil rights era, the doctrine of nonviolence has enjoyed near-universal acceptance by the US Left. Today protest is often shaped by cooperation with state authorities-even organizers of rallies against police brutality apply for police permits, and anti-imperialists usually stop short of supporting self-defense and armed resistance. How Nonviolence Protects the State challenges the belief that nonviolence is the only way to fight for a better world. In a call bound to stir controversy and lively debate, Peter Gelderloos invites activists to consider diverse tactics, passionately arguing that exclusive nonviolence often acts to reinforce the same structures of oppression that activists seek to overthrow. Contemporary movements for social change face plenty of difficult questions, but sometimes matters of strategy and tactics receive low priority. Many North American activists fail to scrutinize the role of nonviolence, never posing essential questions: Is nonviolence effective at ending systems of oppression? Does nonviolence intersect with white privilege and the dominance of North over South? How does pacifism reinforce the same power dynamic as patriarchy? Ultimately, does nonviolence protect the state? Peter Gelderloos is a radical community organizer. He is the author of Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Political, Social, and Environmental Groups and a contributor to Letters From Young Activists. He is the co-facilitator of a workshop on the prison system, and is also involved in independent media, copwatching, anti-oppression work, and anarchist organizing.

Flash mobs-whether as a fun and irreverent group activity or advertising/promotional pitch-present a need for organizers to be aware of the legal issues they may encounter. This, the first book of its kind to discuss the legal side of flash mobs, presents the reader with everything he or she needs to know about where the law stands on all issues related to the planning and execution of flash mobs, including: - Legal implications of planning flash mobs - Protecting participants and bystanders - Confrontations by authorities - Using flash mobs as an effective marketing tool, and numerous case studies Flash mobs are meant to be fun and solely for the entertainment of the participants and their unsuspecting audience, but the legal side of flash mobs must always be considered. This ground-breaking book is a must-read for anyone involved in the creation, promotion, and execution of flash mobs.

"The book provides robust historic, cultural, and social context for social justice work, assists readers in managing the discomfort that often accompanies raised consciousness, and offer step-by-step instructions for initiating social justice campaigns and projects. The text examines the history of liberal activism in the United States, various types of activism, significant social movements, the art of dialoguing through disagreement, the importance of leadership and the risks and rewards associated with activism. An extensive list of causes is provided, along with strategies for getting involved, empowering readers to identify causes that are important to them and to take action"--Back cover.

"A celebration of the revolutionary change Amy and David Goodman have witnessed during the two decades of their acclaimed television and radio news program Democracy Now! and how small individual acts from progressive heroes have produced lasting results. In 1996 Amy Goodman began hosting a show called Democracy Now! to focus on the issues and movements that are too often ignored by the corporate media. Today it is the largest public media collaboration in the US. This important book looks back over the past twenty years of Democracy Now! and the powerful movements and charismatic leaders who are re-shaping our world. Goodman takes us along as she goes to where the silence is, bringing out voices from the streets of Ferguson to Staten Island, Wall Street, and South Carolina to East Timorand other places where people are rising up to demand justice. Giving voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful, Democracy Now! pays tribute to those progressive heroes--the whistleblowers, the organizers, the protesters--who have brought about remarkable, often invisible change over the last couple of decades in seismic ways. This is 'an impassioned book aiming to fuel informed participation, outrage, and dissent' (Kirkus Reviews)."

"Critical Thinking presents, defines and explains the intellectual skills and habits of mind that comprise critical thinking and its relationship to social justice. Each of the sequential chapters includes detailed examples and learning exercises that guide the reader step by step from intellectual competency, to critical thinking, to cultural cognition, and to critical awareness necessary for social justice. The book documents and explains the scope of multiple crises facing society today, including environmental destruction, income and wealth inequality, large-scale human migration, and the rise of autocratic governments. It shows how critical thinking, cultural cognition, and critical awareness lead to the possibility of solutions grounded in social justice. All college students, especially those in the social sciences and humanities, will develop the intellectual skills necessary for critically engaging information in order to become active learners and effective agents in the world. This book complements information in introductory, interdisciplinary, or discipline-specific courses. Every chapter contains examples and exercises that can be assigned as homework, adopted as in-class activities, or both. The Conclusion also contains exercises for developing writing and basic mathematical competency skills"--

"This handbook shares perspectives of experts on what is needed to accelerate recovery of natural and man-made disaster"--

"In the late twentieth century United States, nothing united union members, Chicanos, gay men and lesbians, feminists, black activists, and progressive college students quite so well as Coors beer. Members of these communities came together not in praise of the ice cold beverage but, rather, to unite against a common enemy: the Colorado-based Coors Brewing Company. Wielding the consumer boycott as their weapon of choice, activists targeted Coors for allegations of antiunionism, discrimination, and ties to prominent political conservatives. Over multiple decades of organizing and coalition-building, anti-Coors activists molded the boycott tool into a means of political protest. In Brewing a Boycott, Allyson P. Brantley details the history of this boycott movement - one of the longest such campaigns in U.S. history - for the first time. Drawing from an array of archival collections, as well as oral history interviews with long-time boycotters, Brantley offers a compelling, grassroots view of boycotting, anti-corporate organizing, and the unlikely coalitions that formed in opposition to the iconic Rocky Mountain brew. The story of this boycott, as told here, highlights the vibrancy of activism in the final decades of the twentieth century and the enduring legacy of that organizing for communities, consumer activists, and corporations today"--

On Monday, May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard, called onto the Kent State University campus to quell antiwar demonstrations, fired 61 rounds into a group of students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and Guard presence on campus.  Thirteen seconds later, four students lay dead and nine were wounded. After decades of controversy surrounding the May 4 commemoration, the University moved in a new direction, choosing to use the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to recognize the past and embrace the future. A major component of this was the establishment of an annual scholarly symposium to focus on the great issues of American democracy. The Boundaries of Freedom of Expression and Order in American Democracy is the product of the first symposium, which explored the limits of freedom of expression in American society as they apply to business, education, media, law, politics, the Internet, and other venues. The contributions to this book represent an impressive range of incisive analyses and commentary by leading First Amendment scholars, including the symposium's keynote speakers: Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of Stanford Law School; Anthony Lewis, two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist of the New York Times and the author of two major First Amendment books; and Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn, Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School.

"Beyond the Pink Tide considers a wave of artistic and curatorial efforts and social movements that refuse national borders in an effort to think hemispherically. In modeling a transnational American Studies, the book considers recent art and cultural production that engage politics in the Americas. In the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Latin America experienced a shift toward left-leaning and progressive politics that challenged US neoliberalism and hegemony. The media dubbed this turn the "pink tide," and by 2009, leftist governments were in power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela. But by 2010, this tide began to turn as several governments failed to implement their progressive agendas, leaving the structures of capitalism intact. Beyond the Pink Tide explores new ways of understanding social and political transformation, particularly through the everyday practices of queer communities, anticapitalist movements, decolonization, feminisms, and the arts. Macarena Go��mez-Barris shows readers the possibilities beyond the limited frame of state-centered politics to achieve concrete social transformation beginning at the level of artistic and social imagination--in Latin America, the United States, and the world."--Provided by publisher.

"Industrial toxic emissions on the South Baltimore Peninsula are among the highest in the nation. Because of the concentration of factories and other chemical industries in their neighborhoods, residents face elevated rates of lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses in addition to heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular disease, all of which can lead to premature death. 'Fighting to Breathe' follows a dynamic and creative group of high school students who decided to fight back against the race- and class-based health disparities and inequality in their city. For more than a decade, student organizers stood up to the proposed construction of an incinerator and to unequal land use practices, and initiated new waste management strategies. As a Baltimore resident and activist-scholar, Nicole Fabricant documents how young organizers came to envision, design, and create a more just and sustainable Baltimore"--

"The beginning of the 21st century brought forth a number of social media platforms that have allowed activists to increase their audience exponentially and with relative ease. Under hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo to the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements, digital social activision mobilized people and movements like almost never before. In #HashtagActivism: Networked Counterpublics in the Digital Age the authors examine how and why Twitter hashtags have become an important platform for historically disenfranchised populations to advance counter narratives and advocate for social change. We contend that members of these marginalized groups, in the tradition of counterpublics, are using Twitter hashtags to build diverse networks of dissent and shape the cultural and political knowledge fundamental to contemporary identity-based social movements. Given shifting understandings and ongoing conversations about the role of social media in 21st century democracy, and considering recent high-profile public debates about racial violence, feminist inclusivity, and sexual identity, #Hashtag Activism will provide readers with a model of how to study political identity and meaning-making processes within digital spaces while highlighting compelling cases of counterpublic activism and dissent"--

"The book focuses on a strategic choice by the North American wing of the global climate movement: to ally themselves with place-based interests, including Indigenous groups, to block new coal plants, coal port expansion, fracking, and more recently, oil sands pipelines. The strategy by climate activists to target fossil fuel infrastructure has been effective at movement building and driving policy forward, but it might also indirectly threaten the clean energy transformation needed to address the climate crisis"--

"In the midst of loss, death, and suffering, our charge is to figure out what freedom really means--and how we take steps to get there. The uprising of 2020 marks a new phase in the unfolding Movement for Black Lives. The brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and countless other injustices large and small, lit the spark of the largest protest movement in US history against racism and the politics of disposability that the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare. In this urgent and incisive collection of new interviews bookended by two new essays, Marc Lamont Hill critically examines the "pre-existing conditions" that led us to this moment of upheaval, guiding us through both the perils and possibilities, and helping us imagine an abolitionist future."