1st Edition

Roads Not Taken Progressive Populism in Historical Perspective

By Michael Kimmel Copyright 2025
190 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

190 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

190 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Using a range of in-depth historical case studies, this timely work excavates the oft-forgotten tradition of progressive populism and highlights the relevance of such movements to our own tumultuous times. Populism in its 21st-century guise is often centered around exclusionary notions of nationality and the exultation of an authoritarian leader. Yet, as this book demonstrates, this has not... Read more

1. Populism Left and Right

2. “Combustible Material”: Artisanal Virtue Among the Levellers

3. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”: The Sans-Culottes in the Sections of Revolutionary Paris

4. Serfs Up: The Countryside Strikes Back

5. The Aesthetics of Producerism: The Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States and Britain

6. Ethnicity as Peoplehood: Populism Against the Nation-State

7. “Oligarchs, Tremble!”: Progressive Populism Goes South

Epilogue: Progressive Populism Today and Tomorrow

Biography

Michael Kimmel is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies Emeritus at Stony Brook University, New York, USA, where he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities. His research interests encompass gender studies, social movements, and historical sociology. He is the author of numerous books including Revolution: A Sociological Interpretation (1990), Manhood in America: A Cultural History (1996), Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era (2013), Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get Into – and Out of – Violent Extremism (2017), The Gendered Society (Sixth Edition, 2016), and the best-seller Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2008). He is also the founder and former Editor of the scholarly journal Men and Masculinities.