Student Resistance
A History of the Unruly Subject
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- $49.99
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- $49.99
Publisher Description
Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject observes the rise and progression of student activism across the globe. By selecting critical case studies from the medieval to modern period, Mark Boren reveals how friction between activists and the academy can culminate in a violent struggle for power.
Using a uniquely international approach, the book offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of university activism and its influence on national politics and broader social movements. Specific instances of resistance, from medieval uprisings across European universities to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, are explored to produce a detailed historical study of power relations and oppression. Globalization and rapid technological advances have established more accessible platforms for collective activism whilst recent political upsets have generated a ripe environment for students to increase their efforts of resistance. This second edition addresses repercussions of the internet and social media age on the evolution of campus activism in the United States and abroad, from #blacklivesmatter to the Palestinian West Bank protests.
This timely revision of Student Resistance continues to reflect on the vital role that resistance plays in the evolution of modern societies and the book remains an essential text for both students and scholars of youth activism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Whether facing down tanks in Tiananmen Square or police gunfire at Kent State, student protestors are best known for isolated, symbolic gestures. But student activism has often been a force for profound social and political transformation. Beginning in the Middle Ages, with the formation of the first European universities, this international history of student resistance surveys 500 years of student activism in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. American readers may be startled by the role that students in other countries have played in overthrowing governments, from the 1950s downfall of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution. Material on the 1960s will be familiar to many readers, but few are knowledgeable about the explosion of activism at Latin American universities in the early 20th century or the violence at Bangladeshi schools in the 1990s. The book's last chapter, on recent developments, is perhaps inevitably, given the volatility of its subject already out of date. Boren, who teaches English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, mentions the current anti-sweatshop movement and graduate-student unions on U.S. campuses, but neglects the many other recent student/labor alliances, including students' attempts to win better pay and work conditions for low-wage workers on their campuses. Most of the narrative reads like a simple time line of events, and Boren offers too little analysis or commentary. Still, he's written a useful and much-needed resource on student protest.
