The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements [Paperback]

James M. Jasper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0226394816 | ISBN-13: 978-0226394817

In The Art of Moral Protest, James Jasper integrates diverse examples of protest—from nineteenth-century boycotts to recent movements—into a distinctive new understanding of how social movements work. Jasper highlights their creativity, not only in forging new morals but in adopting courses of action and inventing organizational forms.

"A provocative perspective on the cultural implications of political and social protest."—Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book offers a provocative perspective on the cultural implications of political and social protest. Sociology professor Jasper has already written on the antinuclear and animal-rights protest movements. In this more ambitious work, he surveys the relevant social science literature and finds that scholars are all too often unaware of or unconcerned with the creative, subjective side of protest activity, focusing instead on structural explanations that discount the consciousness of the individuals involved. James asks, "Why do our thoughts about the world lead us so often to want to change it? What moral visions inspire outrage about often-distant practices and institutions?" Drawing on research and personal observation, he discusses the dynamics underlying a number of different social movements. Concluding that protest is a "necessity," James argues that the "gift of protesters is that they create controversy, [which]... leads to the weighting and testing of perspectives and values." The extensive notes and bibliography attests to Jasper's deep immersion in his topic. Recommended for academic collections.?Kent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 530 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226394816
• ISBN-13: 978-0226394817
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #932,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pathbreaking Book, July 4, 2000

By 

J. Goodwin (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements (Paperback)

James Jasper's "The Art of Moral Protest" is one of the most important recent contributions to the scholarly literature on social movements and political and moral protest. The book's title signifies two important ideas. First, Jasper wants to restore the moral dimension to political protest, which of late has been reduced by many scholars to the calculated pursuit of material interests. Second, the book stresses the "artful" nature of protest, the fact, that is, that protest doesn't simply arise in some mechanical fashion from "structural" preconditions, but involves choices and improvisation by thinking (and feeling) individuals. Indeed, Jasper wants to reintegrate feelings and emotions, which scholars have studiously avoided in recent years, back into our understanding of moral protest. And he emphasizes how specific individuals with specific biographies (who, again, have been largely purged from the scholarly literature) matter for protest. The book weaves a powerful critique of dominant ways of thinking about protest through a series of fascinating studies of several movements and movement participants. In sum, this is an extremely important and pathbreaking book. It should be read by anyone with an interest in politics, social movements, or protest.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will be considered a classic by future generation, January 16, 2003

By 

Maxime Lachance (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements (Paperback)

James Jasper offers one of the best books available on social movements. In "The Art of Moral Protest" it is mostly the cultural and emotional sides of social movements which is explored leaving aside the more traditional structural accounts of social movement theory. Jasper emphasize principally 4 dimensions of protest: culture, resources, strategies and biographies and divide movements into two categories: citizenship movements and post-citizenship movements. Interestingly however, the structure of the book do not follow these main dimensions and categories but propose a kind of linear logic of movements' evolution from the emotion (moral shock) which send people into action to the creation of a movement culture which help sustain participation to the relation between movements and the broader culture in which they evolve and try to change. An interesting last part deal with the author's own "normative view" of social movements exploring the pleasures associated with movement participation, the danger sometimes embodied in social movement (particularly those who harbour totalizing ideologies) but also the necessity of protest for our societies. The book is full of stories and historical details which help make sense of the arguments developed in the book and keep this theoretical book as interesting as a novel.

If I had to teach a course on social movements, I would probably chose two books for my students to read. The first one would be "Power in Movement" from Tarrow and the second one would be "The Art of Moral Protest". Many excellent books have been written on social movements but very few complement each other as well as these two books. They present the two current main branches of social movement studies.

If I had to find a few problems with the book it would be related to the reference system adopted. By placing all references and notes at the end of the book, the more interested reader easily get lost. It might sound silly at first, but since the book is quite thick it becomes quite annoying with time... especially when you are thrilled by the reading but still want to get that extra detail hidden at the end of the book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best recent book on social movements!, June 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements (Paperback)

I loved this book. Anyone who likes the cultural side of politics will appreciate this book, Jasper's magnum opus. If you're writing a dissertation on social movements, you can't not read it.