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Since the Supreme Court seems likely to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision, American debate appears fixated on clashing rights. This work draws attention to an entirely different and unexpected shift in the terms of debate: instead of simply championing their own rights, those on opposing sides debated about the policy costs and benefits of abortion vs. the laws restricting it. This mostly unrecognized development deepened polarization. Whilst maintaining their constitutional demands, pro-choice and pro-life advocates increasingly disagreed about the basic facts. Drawing on unexplored records and interviews with key participants, Ziegler challenges the view that the Supreme Court is primarily responsible for the escalation of the conflict and charts social-movements divides and crucial legal strategies.

One of the co-founders of the hashtag Black Lives Matter in 2013, Garza outlines in this book a long term strategy for social change.  It is based on her own years of experience in community organizing.  She has moved on from the Black Lives Matter organization (although still close to the other co-founders) to create the Black Futures Lab.  She has developed a policy platform (based on a major cross-party survey of Black people in the US in 2018) that focuses on central, widely supported demands. These include raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, broadening opportunities for Black home ownership, and removing the police presence from schools that often leads to pupils being jailed.  She has campaigned in the 2020 US election on her agenda.  Her book also argues the need to abandon outdated models of individual leadership from the Civil Rights Movement, as well as cautioning against over-reliance on celebrity activists and the role of the internet.

See also: Mahdawi, Arwa, ‘Move Fast and Fix Things’, Guardian Weekly, 23 Oct. 2020, pp. 34-7.

An extended interview with Alicia Garza.

Collection of documents from official perspective.

Account focusing primarily on role of military and using extensive military sources, but also discusses the role of people power.

Account of direct action campaign against the building of a nuclear-blast-proof bunker.

Detailed account of the campaign set up by the families of the 13 people killed, and 14 injured, on ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry in 1972. The campaign set up in 1992 succeeded, in the face of intransigence by the British authorities and indifference or open hostility of many others, in forcing the government to institute a new inquiry under Lord Justice Saville. This concluded in 2010 that the demonstrators had been unarmed, that no stones or petrol bombs had been thrown and that the civilians were not posing any threat. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a public apology in Parliament, describing the killings as ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ The book is written by the niece of one of those who was killed, and includes the testimonies of eyewitnesses, and a foreword by the leading civil rights lawyer, Garreth Pierce.

The authors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong interviewed a random sample of 1011 to assess the role of social media in the Umbrella Movement. They found a positive correlation between support for the movement and reliance on social media for news and that this group also distrusted the Hong Kong authorities, the police and Chinese Government.

Compares the efficacy of defiance and disruption with constitutional methods in four US movements.

Christian Churches have been important in quite a few African movements. This book analyses different churches – Catholic, Protestant (mainstream), Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent – and their beliefs, and also assesses their role in the emerging of civil society. Case studies of four countries: Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon.

For Weinstein’s account of the background to the 1973 coup, see: Martin Weinstein, Uruguay: The Politics of Failure, Westport CT, Greenwood Press, 1975 , pp. 190 .