Todd Gitlin (1943–2022)

This book was referenced in another book I'd recently read, and it seemed intriguing: written in 1995 amidst the "science wars", the "PC wars", and so forth, how would the "culture wars" of that time relate to the political strife now (fall 2016)?

Very much so. Very, very much so. There are passages, almost entire paragraphs, that you could lift from the book and you wouldn't be able to tell (minus one or two references) if they had been written then or now, particularly re: white (and, particularly, white male) anger, frustration, and resentment (regardless of how you view that) and the political capitalization of that by conservative political power. (To the point that Trump is now making the Republican party the de facto white identify party.)

Overall, the book is a criticism and call away from identity politics, and a call toward the (re)establishment of a common Left. I'm not sure if that is a project who's time has come, though I don't see what other (even passably good) options exist.… (plus d'informations)

This book provides an extensive, detailed, well-researched, and personal account of the 1960s political youth movement. The combination of factual accounts of major events and anecdotes of illustrative minor events evokes the zeitgeist of the 60s. Although I do not always concur with Gitlin's extrapolated wisdom regarding movement strategy, his theoretical commentary is thoughtful and never overwhelms the other content. This work gets five stars primarily because Gitlin's exposition of the nitty-gritty internal workings of activist groups is excellent to the point of being a must-read for anyone interested in the subject.… (plus d'informations)

About 60% of the way , and I am conatntly finding things to highlight (which I do in the Kindle) and to share (which I have on my Kindle Share account, which I also tweet and post to Facebook. Very well written, good background on the participants andf "leaders" (though many resist either identifying or claiming leadership to protect against falling into conventional notions of organizations and/or politics.

I've also been opening Google Hangouts over the past couple weeks, as I read further. Thus far, noone has had comments in the Hangouts. Will write more as I read further and come to the end of the book.… (plus d'informations)