Party in the Street

Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics

by Michael T. Heaney, Fabio Rojas

Party in the Street explores the interaction between political parties and social movements in the United States. Examining the collapse of the post-9/11 antiwar movement against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this book focuses on activism and protest in the United States. It argues that the electoral success of the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama, as well as antipathy toward President George W. Bush, played a greater role in this collapse than did changes in foreign policy. It shows that how people identify with social movements and political parties matters a great deal, and it considers the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street as comparison cases.

Genres: Politics

330 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2015

Reviews

[Coop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of excruciating detail that is clearly not meant for the casual activist reader. However, the introduction and closing chapters are worth reading for their disheartening conclusion that anti-war activism after 9/11 accomplished absolutely no policy goals. 150 anti-war bills pushed through Congress, and not a single one passed the Senate. The main upshot of the activism was to elect new government officials who waged about the same amount of war as the previous ones.