Social movement activists, such as those who protested the Iraq War, often become discouraged when their immediate goals are not attained. But research shows that such movements can have deep and long-lasting consequences for politics, society and the activists themselves.
References
1.
ArkinWilliam M.“The Dividends of Delay.”Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2003. Arkin details the influence of the peace movement on U.S. military strategy in the Iraq War.
2.
GiugniMarcoMcAdamDougTillyCharles. How Social Movements Matter.Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. This collection employs diverse approaches in examining the outcomes of social movements across a range of cases.
3.
KlatchRebecca. A Generation Divided: The New Left, The New Right, and the 1960s.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. Klatch traces individual life stories of activists on both ends of the political spectrum during a turbulent period and beyond.
4.
MeyerDavid S.“Protest Cycles and Political Process: American Peace Movements in the Nuclear Age.”Political Research Quarterly46 (1993): 451–79. This article details how government responses to peace movements affect policy and subsequent political mobilization.
5.
MeyerDavid S.WhittierNancyRobnettBelinda, eds. Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State.New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. A collection that addresses the link between protesters and context across different settings and times.
6.
McAdamDougSuYang. “The War at Home: Antiwar Protests and Congressional Voting, 1965 to 1973.”American Sociological Review67 (2002): 696–721. Antiwar protests set an agenda for Congress, forcing resolutions about the war, but could not influence the outcomes of those votes.
7.
RochonThomas. Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Rochon looks at social movements as a primary way to promote new ideas and alter culture.
8.
TarrowSidney. Power in Movement.New York: Cambridge University Press, [1994] 1998. A broad and comprehensive review of scholarship on movements, synthesized in a useful framework.
