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From women's suffrage to Civil Rights for African Americans, to the environment, and the gay and lesbian liberation movement, the American Left has achieved notable successes in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sometimes celebrated and sometimes reviled, the Left has taken on many forms and reinvented itself many times over the past century.
In
All-American Rebels, historian Robert C. Cottrell traces the rise and fall, ebb and flow of left-wing American movements. Following an overview of early 20th century movements, Cottrell focuses on the 1960s to today, offering readers a concise introduction and helping them to understand the political and ideological roots of the Left today. Cottrell includes chapters on the most recent versions of the American left, discussing community organizing, gay liberation, the women's movement, the Campaign for Economic Democracy, the nuclear freeze movement, opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America, the anti-WTO campaign, Code Pink, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and more. The demand for and support of democracy and the quest for empowerment in various guises unifies these different lefts to one another and to the general unfolding of American history. Cottrell argues that democratic engagement has proven inconsistent and at times outright contradictory. The Left has been most successful when it fully embraces a democratic vision.
List of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Socialists, Wobblies, and Village RebelsChapter 2: Repression and the Postwar American LeftChapter 3: Heyday of the Old LeftChapter 4: American Radicalism and the Early Cold WarChapter 5: Revolt of the Young (and Others)Chapter 6: The Year of Revolution and BeyondChapter 7: One, Two, Many MovementsChapter 8: Citizen Activism on Many FrontsChapter 9 : Resurgent RadicalismBibliography
About the author
Robert C. Cottrell was a longtime professor of history and American studies at California State University, Chico. He taught a course for many years on American Popular Culture and offered seminars on baseball and American culture. He is the author of The Best Pitcher in Baseball: The Life of Rube Foster, Negro League Giant; Blackball, the Black Sox, and the Babe: Baseball's Crucial 1920 Season; Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseball--and America; and The Year Without a World Series: Major League Baseball and the Road to the 1994 Players' Strike. He lives in California.
