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Rough Draft of History: A Century of US Social Movements in the News

Online ISBN:
9780691232768
Print ISBN:
9780691232782
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Book

Rough Draft of History: A Century of US Social Movements in the News

Edwin Amenta,
Edwin Amenta
University of California, Irvine
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Neal Caren
Neal Caren
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
17 May 2022
Online ISBN:
9780691232768
Print ISBN:
9780691232782
Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Abstract

As a new view of twentieth-century US social movements, this book examines how national newspapers covered social movements and the organizations driving them. The book identifies hundreds of movement organizations, from the Women's Christian Temperance Union to Occupy Wall Street, and documents their treatment in the news. In doing so, it provides an alternative account of US history from below, as it was refracted through journalistic lenses. Iconic organizations in the women's rights, African American civil rights, and environmental movements gained substantial media attention. But so too did now-forgotten groups, such as the German–American Alliance, Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Peace and Freedom Party. The book shows why some organizations made big news while others did not, why some were treated well while others were handled roughly. It recovers forgotten stories, including that of the Townsend Plan, a Depression-era organization that helped establish Social Security. It also reveals that the media handled the civil rights movement far more harshly than popular histories recount. And it details the difficulties movements face in today's brave new media world. Drawing from digitized newspapers across a century and through to the present, the book offers insights for those seeking social and political change and those trying to make sense of it.

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