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It takes a certain ...resolve to question the status quo. Whether that indicates courage or foolhardiness depends on which side of the divide one finds himself or herself.

No matter the resolution of the question, the citizen that stands in the public square and says, loudly and clearly so that all might see and hear...'This is not right..!!' ...that citizen honors and nourishes the fundamental human right to protest.


The United States of America is a country sprung from the seeds of protest. American Protest Literature celebrates those citizens who stood alone, or in small and large groups, and powerfully ...forcefully ...with undying conviction said 'This is not right..!!'


Harvard professor John Stauffer pens the Foreword, explaining the origin of this tome as a series of college classroom lectures on American protest literature.

Dividing the newly-minted genre into eleven distinct categories, American Protest Literature, spans two hundred-plus years of American art and literature. The works excerpted here range from the pre-Revolutionary War work of Paine, Common Sense through Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Thoreau's Resistance to Civil Government, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Sinclair's The Jungle, King's Letter from Birmingham Jail up to today's protests against the war in Iraq


Specific categories include:
  The American Revolution
  Native American Rights
  Abolition and Antislavery
  Women's Rights and Suffragism
  Socialism and Industry
  Against Lynching
  The Great Depression
  Civil Rights and Black Liberation
  Second-Wave Feminism
  Gay Liberation
  The Vietnam War and Beyond


Each chapter features five selections from the literature or art of the day. In addition, five selections of American literature influenced by the primary works are featured. Each work is introduced by Harvard professor Zoe Trodd who was intimately involved in the development of the nucleus of the analysis presented in this book. Her introductions succinctly set the subject in its contemporary environ and explains its significance to the particular societal challenge of its day.


A particularly fascinating lesson I learned while reading was the extent to which successive societal upheavals were often based on the work and words of the movements that came before them. For instance, Jefferson's Declaration of Independence—perhaps the ultimate 'protest' document—saw its tone and words borrowed by successive protest movements to include those fighting for the abolition of slavery, protection of worker's rights, and universal suffragism.

Given the wide range of political movements covered the reader might expect certain biases to sneak into the analysis of the writings. But I really could not detect any particular themes espoused or 'slanted' analysis.


With a richly diverse collection of writings, pictures, and thoughts spanning the political spectrum and reaching across two hundred-plus years, this book and its detailed commentary is as stimulating a read as I have enjoyed in years.


The Bottom Line
As the defining work and collection of a new form of American literature, American Protest Literature is destined to become a staple in classrooms and political collections in homes and libraries across the United States.

Recommended: Yes