Endurance activism: transcontinental walking, the great peace march and the politics of movement culture
Vol Doctoral Thesis, University of Iowa2018, pp. 285
This thesis focuses on the 1986 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament that lasted nine-month and covered 3,325 miles, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The author coins the term ‘endurance activism’ and explores two central questions: What is the relationship between long-distance walking and the politics of social movements? To what extent does ‘endurance’ shape meanings of the March’s related but twin goals: the building of a “prefigurative” community, and a mass movement capable of attaining media coverage and achieving concrete, or “strategic” political outcomes?