American Left: Its Impact on Politics and Society since 1900
Oct 2013 · Edinburgh University Press
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264
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About this ebook
How left-wing politics has shaped life in the USA, from the 1900s to the present dayWinner of the American Politics Group's 2013 Neustadt Book PrizeOnly the American right has ever really recognised the potency of the American left. Now, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones fully details the left's numerous achievements, including the welfare state, opposing militarism, reshaping of American culture, black rights and civil liberties, awakening the USA to the dangers of fascism and great public enterprises such as the late Twin Towers. Jones tells the full story of the US's left wing: how the socialists of the Old Left gave way by the 1960s to the anti-war militants of the New Left, and how they in turn gave way to a 'Newer Left' that advocated causes such as gay rights and multiculturalism. Bringing the discussion into the 21st century, he shows how the post-2000 Bush administration succumbed to the 'socialist' nationalisation it despised, and hails Barack Obama as a president for the left.Key FeaturesLooks at why the USA's left is always underestimated: the relative absence of a free press, its tendency to deny its own existence, and the fallacious claim that if the right is always wrong, it must be wrong about the left's impact tooExplores the changes that have taken place in the years between the orthodox socialist challenge of a century ago and the actions of those President Obama describes as 'my friends on the left'Draws on interviews with participants on the left including:Todd Gitlin, president of Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960sFrances Piven, anti-poverty campaigner and bête noir of the American rightBernie Sanders, socialist US Senator from VermontMarilyn Young, leading New left historian of US foreign policy"
About the author
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is professor emeritus of American History at the University of Edinburgh. He took his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge and has been a postdoctoral fellow and visiting professor at the Universities of Harvard and Toronto. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American Foreign Policy and Peace Now! American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War.
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