A longtime movement insider's
powerful account of the origins of today's protest movements and what they can
achieve now
As Americans take to the
streets in record numbers to resist the presidency of Donald Trump, L.A.
Kauffman’s timely, trenchant history of protest offers unique insights into how
past movements have won victories in times of crisis and backlash and how they
can be most effective today.
This deeply researched
account, twenty-five years in the making, traces the evolution of disruptive
protest since the Sixties to tell a larger story about the reshaping of the
American left. Kauffman, a longtime grassroots organizer, examines how
movements from ACT UP to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter have used
disruptive tactics to catalyze change despite long odds.
Kauffman's lively and elegant
history is propelled by hundreds of candid interviews conducted over a span of
decades. Direct Action showcases the voices of key players in an array of
movements – environmentalist, anti-nuclear, anti-apartheid, feminist, LGBTQ,
anti-globalization, racial-justice, anti-war, and more – across an era when
American politics shifted to the right, and a constellation of decentralized
issue- and identity-based movements supplanted the older ideal of a single,
unified left.
Now, as protest movements
again take on a central and urgent political role, Kauffman’s history offers
both striking lessons for the current moment and an unparalleled overview of
the landscape of recent activism. Written with nuance and humor, Direct Action
is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the protest
movements of our time.
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