History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times Audiobook (Free)

Historian and civil rights activist proves how progressive movements can flourish even in conservative times.

Despair and mourning following the election of an antagonistic or polarizing chief executive, such as for example Donald Trump, is part of the push-pull of American politics. But in this incisive book, historian Mary Frances Berry implies that level of resistance to presidential administrations has resulted in positive change and the beat of outrageous proposals, actually in challenging instances. Noting that presidents, about History Teaches Us to Resist: How Intensifying Movements Have Been successful in Challenging Occasions including ones considered progressive, sometimes require massive corporation to affect plan decisions, Berry cites Indigenous peoples’ protests against the Dakota pipeline during Barack Obama’s administration as a modern example of effective resistance built on earlier activities.

Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Berry discusses that president’s refusal to avoid competition discrimination in the protection industry during World Battle II and the next March on Washington motion. She analyzes Lyndon Johnson, the war in Vietnam, as well as the antiwar motion and examines Ronald Reagan’s two terms, which offer tales of opposition to reactionary guidelines, such as ignoring the AIDS problems and retreating on racial progress, to show how level of resistance can succeed.

The prochoice protests through the George H. W. Bush administration as well as the opposition to Costs Clinton’s “Don’t Request, Don’t Inform” policy, as well as his budget cuts and welfare reform, may also be discussed, as are protests against the battle in Iraq as well as the Patriot Act during George W. Bush’s presidency. Throughout these varied good examples, Berry underscores that even when resistance doesn’t attain all of the goals of a specific movement, it frequently plants a seed that involves fruition later.

Berry also shares experiences from her 6 decades seeing that an activist in a variety of motions, including protesting the Vietnam Battle and advocating for the Free of charge South Africa and civil rights movements, which provides an additional coating of insight from a person who was right now there. And for that reason of having served in five presidential administrations, Berry brings an insider’s understanding of government.

History Teaches Us to Resist is an important book for our moments which attests to the energy of level of resistance. It proves to us through myriad traditional illustrations that protest can be an essential ingredient of politics, which progressive actions can and can flourish, even in perilous moments.