1st Edition

Rebellion in America Citizen Uprisings, the News Media, and the Politics of Plutocracy

By Anthony DiMaggio Copyright 2020
    290 Pages 64 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    290 Pages 64 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In a time of rising inequality and plutocratic government, citizens’ movements are emerging with growing frequency to offer populist challenges to the declining living standards of masses of Americans, and to protest the conditions through which individuals suffer in poor communities across the country.

    This book looks at the progression of modern social uprisings in the post-2008 period, including the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the Bernie Sanders “Revolution,” Trump’s populism, the anti-Trump revolt, and #MeToo. A key theme is that populism and mass anger at the political-economic status quo take different forms depending on whether the protests are progressive-left or right-wing in orientation.

    Employing theories of elite politics and pluralism, and using a mixed methods approach, Anthony DiMaggio harnesses his rich experience with movement politics and his engagement with a wide range of media and public opinion data to explain where we are today and how we got here – always with an eye on moving ahead. Aimed at courses on social movements wherever they’re taught, this book also offers general readers insight into contemporary politics and protest.

    Introduction: Social Movements and Rebellion in a Time of Plutocracy

    Chapter 1: The Tea Party and the Rise of Rightwing Rebellion

    Chapter 2: The Economic Justice Movement – Challenging Plutocracy and Inequality

    Chapter 3: Black Lives Matter And the Struggle Against Color-Blind Racism (With Sakura Shinjo)

    Chapter 4: Populism in the 2016 Election

    Chapter 5: The Anti-Trump Uprising and Beyond

    Conclusion

    Acknowledgments

    Index

    Biography

    Anthony DiMaggio is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University and author of a variety of books on mass media and politics, most recently The Politics of Persuasion: Media Bias and Economic Policy in the Modern Era (2017) and Political Power in America: Class Conflict and the Subversion of Democracy (2019). He has been an active participant in social movement politics for the last two decades, and is an avid social commentator.

    Praise for Rebellion in America

    "The world is aflame with popular uprisings, not least the United States.  This careful study of the variety of recent movements, of how movements gain public support and the pitfalls and barriers they face, provides a very valuable guide to those committed to change the world – a critical necessity today."

    --Noam Chomsky

    "Surveying the rapidly changing American political landscape from the Global Financial Crisis to the populist surge under Trump, Anthony DiMaggio offers a much-needed reappraisal of the role of social movements in promoting progressive societal transformation. Combining qualitative analysis with a wealth of empirical data, this landmark study focuses especially on the growing power of the social media and public opinion in shaping intersecting identities that drive popular protests on both the political Left and Right. Essential reading!"

    --Manfred B. Steger, University of Hawaiʻi, and Global Professorial Fellow, Western Sydney University

    "DiMaggio has written a compelling, deeply documented argument that popular social movements are the dominant force transforming the US political landscape. Read this book if you want to get hard evidence in a world of fake news about how social change really happens."

    --Charles Derber, Boston College