How to Read a Protest
The Art of Organizing and Resistance
1st Edition
Published on 30. October 2018
Book
Hardback
152 pages
978-0-520-30152-8 (ISBN)
Description
"Explores protesting as an act of faith . . . How to Read a Protest argues that the women's marches of 2017 didn't just help shape and fuel a moment-they actually created one."-Masha Gessen, The New Yorker
O, the Oprah Magazine's "14 Best Political Books to Read Before the 2018 Midterm Election"
"A fascinating and detailed history of American mass demonstrations."-Publishers Weekly
When millions of people took to the streets for the 2017 Women's Marches, there was an unmistakable air of uprising, a sense that these marches were launching a powerful new movement to resist a dangerous presidency. But the work that protests do often can't be seen in the moment. It feels empowering to march, and record numbers of Americans have joined anti-Trump demonstrations, but when and why does marching matter? What exactly do protests do, and how do they help movements win?
In this original and richly illustrated account, organizer and journalist L.A. Kauffman delves into the history of America's major demonstrations, beginning with the legendary 1963 March on Washington, to reveal the ways protests work and how their character has shifted over time. Using the signs that demonstrators carry as clues to how protests are organized, Kauffman explores the nuanced relationship between the way movements are made and the impact they have. How to Read a Protest sheds new light on the catalytic power of collective action and the decentralized, bottom-up, women-led model for organizing that has transformed what movements look like and what they can accomplish.
O, the Oprah Magazine's "14 Best Political Books to Read Before the 2018 Midterm Election"
"A fascinating and detailed history of American mass demonstrations."-Publishers Weekly
When millions of people took to the streets for the 2017 Women's Marches, there was an unmistakable air of uprising, a sense that these marches were launching a powerful new movement to resist a dangerous presidency. But the work that protests do often can't be seen in the moment. It feels empowering to march, and record numbers of Americans have joined anti-Trump demonstrations, but when and why does marching matter? What exactly do protests do, and how do they help movements win?
In this original and richly illustrated account, organizer and journalist L.A. Kauffman delves into the history of America's major demonstrations, beginning with the legendary 1963 March on Washington, to reveal the ways protests work and how their character has shifted over time. Using the signs that demonstrators carry as clues to how protests are organized, Kauffman explores the nuanced relationship between the way movements are made and the impact they have. How to Read a Protest sheds new light on the catalytic power of collective action and the decentralized, bottom-up, women-led model for organizing that has transformed what movements look like and what they can accomplish.
Reviews / Votes
"A fascinating and detailed history of American mass demonstrations" * Publishers Weekly * "Explores protesting as an act of faith . . . How to Read a Protest argues that the women's marches of 2017 didn't just help shape and fuel a moment-they actually created one." -- Masha Gessen * The New Yorker * "At a little over a hundred pages, it's a quick read but Kauffman's familiarity with the mechanics of mass protest and the history of the U.S. left over the past half-century are evident throughout." * The Indypendent * "A quick and easy read, filled with amazing historical images. Kauffman was a mobilizing coordinator for some of the largest Iraq War demonstrations, and her sources and mentors include some of the most driven organizers in movement building in the US since 1963. If you've ever organized a protest or put your theory into praxis, you're going to find this book a real page-turner." * AfterEllen * Listed as one of the "14 Best Political Books to Read Before the 2018 Midterm Election.""A seasoned activist shares her wisdom on the struggle for social change, using political movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Women's March, and the Bonus Army as examples." * O, The Oprah Magazine * "For a first draft of history still in the making, Kauffman is right to focus on the broad scale and wide impact of the Women's Marches of 2017. As she persuasively shows, marches need not be the apex of a movement's rise; they can also be its generative soil." * The New Republic * "How to Read a Protest begins, "Protests work?-?just not, perhaps, the way you think." There are few people better placed to explain that than Kauffman." * Hong Kong Free Press * "Drawing on 30-plus years as a grassroots organizer, L.A. Kauffman sheds new light on how and why protests work." * Sojourners * "Kauffman sheds new light on the catalytic power of collective action and the decentralized, bottom-up, women-led model that has transformed what movements look like and what they can accomplish."
* EcoWatch *
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
42 bw photos, 1 table
Dimensions
Height: 211 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
310 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-30152-8 (9780520301528)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2018
1st Edition
University of California Press
€16.49
Available for download
Person
L.A. Kauffman has been a grassroots organizer and movement journalist for more than thirty-five years. She was the mobilizing coordinator for some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history-the massive Iraq antiwar protests of 2003 and 2004-and has played key roles in many other movements and campaigns. Kauffman's writings on organizing and resistance have appeared in The Guardian, n+1, Frieze, and numerous other publications, and she is the author of Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism.
Visit lakauffman.org for tour dates and speaking engagements.
Visit lakauffman.org for tour dates and speaking engagements.
Content
HOW TO READ A PROTEST
Acknowledgments
A Note on Protest Numbers
Notes
Selected Bibliography and Recommended Reading
Photo Credits
Index
Acknowledgments
A Note on Protest Numbers
Notes
Selected Bibliography and Recommended Reading
Photo Credits
Index