Activism and Civic Engagement

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Pride Parades and LGBT Movements contributes to a better understanding of LGBT protest dynamics through a comparative study of eleven Pride parades in seven European countries: Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and Mexico.

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The past few years have seen an unexpected resurgence of street-level protest movements around the world, from the uprisings of the Arab Spring to the rise of the anti-austerity Indignados in Spain and Greece to the global spread of the Occupy movement. This collection is designed to offer a comparative analysis of these movements, setting them in international, socio-economic, and cross-cultural perspective in order to help us understand why movements emerge, what they do, how they spread, and how they fit into both local and worldwide historical contexts.

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The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century details the impact of specific strategies on campaigns across the country, from Occupy Wall Street to battles over sweatshops, the environment, AIDS policies, education reform, homelessness, and more: How should activists use new media tools to expose issues and mobilize grassroots support?

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This book offers a much-needed appraisal of two key social change movements within higher education: civic engagement and social innovation. The authors critically explore the historical and contemporary contexts as well as democratic foundations (or absence thereof) of both approaches, concluding with a discussion of possible future directions that may make the approaches more effective in fulfilling the broader democratic mission of U.S. higher education.

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Underscoring the complex relationship between civic engagement and education at all stages of life, this innovative Handbook identifies the contemporary challenges and best approaches and practices to encourage civic engagement within education.

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Examines the organization, regulation, and enactment of civic engagement within AmeriCorps, an American volunteer service program.

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An essential collection of source texts by major historical figures on the value of democracy, key concepts and practices, theoretical perspectives, and contemporary challenges. Perfect for course use, the book provides an unparalleled introduction to standard articulations of democracy and its multiple manifestations in our interconnected, conflict-ridden world.

This book offers both an institutional history of news--why the media covered what they covered, and to what effect--and also shows the influence of news coverage on a range of social movements, from the well-known to the obscure. Media coverage is a crucial component of movement visibility; news can draw the general public into battles over new issues but also shapes how movements are perceived. The authors show how a movement's structure--it's organization, as well as the protest and non-protests activities it undertakes--influence its coverage, and consider too how macro political conditions shape movement coverage.

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The anthology brings together chapters and excerpts from previously published books in the series that reflect the breadth of the intellectual commitments of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History series--including material from one of the first books in the series, many of its most popular chapters and award-winning books, and its most recent bestseller. Curated around the theme of organizing over two hundred years, each piece in the anthology shows a different dimension of nineteenth and twentieth century labor, activist, legal, political, or community organizing at work within the history of women, gender, and sexuality in the United States.

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With Black Americans disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change--making up 13 percent of the US population but breathing 40 percent dirtier air and being twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems than white counterparts--climate change is a central issue of racial justice and affects every aspect of life for Black communities. In Before the Streetlights Come On, climate activist Heather McTeer Toney insists that those most affected by climate change are best suited to lead the movement for climate justice.

Deep Roots shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery--compared to areas that were not--are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress. Highlighting the connection between historical institutions and contemporary political attitudes, the authors explore the period following the Civil War when elite whites in former bastions of slavery had political and economic incentives to encourage the development of anti-black laws and practices.

Through in-depth interviews with activists, Laura Woliver examines community actions, studying the groups involved and linking her conclusions to larger questions of political power and the impact of social movements. Group successes and failures are explained through analysis of fluid social movements and the role of religion, class, gender, and race.

Kristin A. Goss examines how women's civic place has changed over the span of more than 120 years, how public policy has driven these changes, and why these changes matter for women and American democracy.

Whether you want to stop the pollution of a nearby river, save a local wilderness area from development, or elect an environmentalist to your city council, this guide shows you how to master the community organizing techniques used by Sierra Club activists across the nation to win environmental victories.

Through new archival sources and the voices of many of those who lived and made this history, this book centralizes African Americans' role in the Internet's creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe.

In No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill, Michael D. Minta explores the ways that civil rights groups representing a range of racial and ethnic minorities achieve success in Congress. Minta shows how increasing diversity in the House of Representatives plays an important role in the success of civil rights organizations.

This the story of how a young man turned $25 into more than 200 schools around the world and the guiding steps anyone can take to lead a successful and significant life. The author began working summers at hedge funds when he was just sixteen years old, sprinting down the path to a successful Wall Street career. But while traveling he met a young boy begging on the streets of India, who after being asked what he wanted most in the world, simply answered, "A pencil." This small request led to a staggering series of events that took the author backpacking through dozens of countries before eventually leaving one of the world's most prestigious jobs at Bain & Company to found Pencils of Promise, the organization he started with just $25 that has since built more than 200 schools around the world. This book chronicles the author's journey to find his calling, as each chapter explains one clear step that every person can take to turn your biggest ambitions into reality, even if you start with as little as $25. His story takes readers behind the scenes with business moguls and village chiefs, world-famous celebrities and hometown heroes. It is filled with compelling stories and shareable insights. All proceeds from this book support Pencils of Promise.

A bold guide to how we must re-envision citizenship if American democracy is to survive. The United States faces dangerous threats from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, terrorists, climate change, and future pandemics, but the greatest peril to the country comes not from abroad but from within, from none other than ourselves. The question facing us is whether we are prepared to do what is necessary to save our democracy.

A People's Art History of the United States places art history squarely in the rough-and-tumble of politics, social struggles, and the fight for justice from the colonial era through the present day. Author and radical artist Nicolas Lampert combines historical sweep with detailed examinations of individual artists and works in a politically charged narrative that spans the conquest of the Americas, the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, western expansion, the suffragette movement and feminism, civil rights movements, environmental movements, LGBT movements, antiglobalization movements, contemporary antiwar movements, and beyond.

Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do." Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself.

What would Jane Addams and her peers say if they had been involved in the Plan of Chicago? Using painstaking research, historical detail, and a pinch of imagination, Metzger thinks she has a pretty good idea.

This volume examines the Right to Protest through examples and with historical context.

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In this text, O'Brien argues that we should respond to climate change first and foremost as a case of systematic and structural violence. As he points out, global warming is primarily caused by the carbon emissions of the affluent, emissions that harm the poor first and worst. Climate change divides human beings from one another and from the earth; in short, global warming and climate change is violence. In order to sustain a constructive and creative response to this violence, he contends, society needs practical examples of activism and nonviolent peacemaking. O'Brien identifies five such examples from US history, providing brief biographies of heroic individuals whose idealism and social commitment and political savvy can model the fight against climate change and for climate justice: Quaker abolitionist John Woolman; social reformer Jane Addams; Catholic worker advocate Dorothy Day; civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.; and union organizer Cesar Chavez.