Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street

by Todd Gitlin

Overview

“[A] much needed book…a compelling portrait of the Occupy movement…that capture[s] the spirit of the people involved, the crisis that gave Occupy birth, and the possibility of genuine change it represents.”
—Eric Foner, author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

The Occupy Wall Street movement arose out of a widespread desire of ordinary Americans to change a political system in which the moneyed “1%” of the nation controls the workings of the government. In Occupy Nation, social historian Todd Gitlin—a former leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who stood at the forefront of the birth of the New Left and the student protests of the 1960s and ’70s—offers a unique overview of one of the most rapidly growing yet misunderstood social revolutions in modern history. Occupy Nation is a concise and incisive look at the Occupy movement at its pivotal moment, as it weighs its unexpected power and grapples with its future mission.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062200921
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/21/2012
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	828,482
Product dimensions:	4.68(w) x 6.98(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Todd Gitlin is professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the PhD program in communications at Columbia University. He lectures widely on matters relating to OWS and is the author of fourteen previous books about politics, culture, movements, and media, including the bestselling The Sixties. He was a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society and its third president

What People are Saying About This

Eric Foner

“In this much needed book, Todd Gitlin, a veteran of the 1960s and an astute commentator on social movements offers a compelling portrait of the Occupy movement that captures the spirit of the people involved, the crisis that gave Occupy birth, and the possibility of genuine change it represents.”

Editorial Reviews

In this much needed book, Todd Gitlin, a veteran of the 1960s and an astute commentator on social movements offers a compelling portrait of the Occupy movement that captures the spirit of the people involved, the crisis that gave Occupy birth, and the possibility of genuine change it represents.” — Eric Foner, author of THE FIERY TRIAL: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

“Balancing lyrical wit and eloquent analysis, Gitlin captures the compelling story of OWS . . . and provides a gift of clear-headed, balanced thinking about [its] future.” — The Rumpus

From the Publisher

In this much needed book, Todd Gitlin, a veteran of the 1960s and an astute commentator on social movements offers a compelling portrait of the Occupy movement that captures the spirit of the people involved, the crisis that gave Occupy birth, and the possibility of genuine change it represents.

Eric Foner

Balancing lyrical wit and eloquent analysis, Gitlin captures the compelling story of OWS . . . and provides a gift of clear-headed, balanced thinking about [its] future.

The Rumpus

Longtime politics and culture writer Gitlin (Journalism and Sociology/Columbia Univ.; Undying, 2011, etc.) looks at the insurgent Occupy protest movement in the United States. The ongoing Occupy movement effectively began on Sept. 17, 2011, when a small group of protesters, calling themselves Occupy Wall Street, set up camp at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. The protesters supported a wide array of left-leaning political causes, mostly addressing economic inequality. They soon received media attention, and their numbers grew quickly, as Occupy protests proliferated in cities around the country and world. As Gitlin points out in this relatively brief "initial report on something very much in progress," the movement has been a huge media success, spreading discussion on economic issues and injecting the term "occupy" and the phrase "the 99 percent" into the national conversation. A veteran of New Left protests in the 1960s and a former president of Students for a Democratic Society, Gitlin effectively places Occupy in context in the history of American progressivism. At times, he seems ambivalent about how the movement is run. Though he approvingly writes about how its lack of leaders and vague goals have helped to make it more appealing and inclusive, he also laments the interminable meetings of fractious and dogmatic Occupiers accomplishing little or nothing concrete. While Gitlin champions Occupy's "incandescent compound of indignation, joy, outrage, hope, ingenuity, and resolve," as well as its nonviolence, he has little insight as to what exactly the movement will accomplish going forward ("Prediction is for fools and the jaded"), an uncertainty apparently shared by many inside the movement. A fine introduction to a nascent movement in progress, characterized as one with great potential but an undetermined future.

Kirkus Reviews