GOVT 3021 - [Social Movements in American Politics]

(crosslisted) AMST 3021
(HA-AS)

Spring. Next Offered: 2019-2020. 4 credits. Student option grading.

M. Sanders.

Analyzing a variety of movements from the late 19th century to the present, this course seeks answers to the following questions: What social and political conditions gave rise to these movements? What determined success or failure (and how should those terms be defined)? How do social movements affect political processes and institutions (and vise versa)? What is their legacy in politics and in patterns of social interaction? The major movements analyzed are populism; progressivism; labor; socialism; women’s suffrage, the contemporary gender equality movement; protest movements of the 1930s; civil rights; SDS and antiwar movements of the 1960s; environmentalism; the 1980s anti-nuclear (weapons) movement; gay rights; and Christian Evangelicals. Some theoretical works will be used, but most of our theoretical explorations will be inductively derived, from studies of actual movements and the difficulties they faced. (AM)