Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, 2nd Edition

by Doug McAdam

In this classic work of sociology, Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the black protest movement in the United States. Moving from theoretical concerns to empirical analysis, he focuses on the crucial role of three institutions that foster protest: black churches, black colleges, and Southern chapters of the NAACP. He concludes that political opportunities, a heightened sense of political efficacy, and the development of these three institutions played a central role in shaping the civil rights movement. In his new introduction, McAdam revisits the civil rights struggle in light of recent scholarship on social movement origins and collective action.

"[A] first-rate analytical demonstration that the civil rights movement was the culmination of a long process of building institutions in the black community."—Raymond Wolters, Journal of American History

"A fresh, rich, and dynamic model to explain the rise and decline of the black insurgency movement in the United States."—James W. Lamare, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Genres: History, Sociology, Nonfiction, Academic, Social Movements, Politics, College

346 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1982

Reviews

[Aslihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins by providing an overview of classical social movement theories and their critiques, also touches upon resource mobilization theory from a critical angle . In this sense it is very useful as a starting point to study the evolution of social movement literature. Doug McAdam establishes a Marxist interpretation of social movements, adapting classical Marxist terminology of class struggle, class consciousness and dialectics. The study of black insurgency is a fitting case to prove his analysis of social movements as political processes. Many of the critiques for the book focus on the inadequacy of the case study analysis but I think it depends on the the particular historical context that it was written and the fact that the case that was used as a supporting argument for the theoretical basis and not the other way around. Although it may not be analytically strong as a part of the African-American studies, I still think the theoretical perspective would be useful in analyzing the roots of the movement and its current extension in BLM for example.

[Drick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially in this book Douglas McAdam seeks to compare his political process theory of social movements to both the classical and resource mobilization theories, using the Black insurgency movement (pre Civil Rights and Civil Rights) as a case study of his point. For students of social movement theories this is an extremely helpful book in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these theories. Within its stated purpose, the book's one major shortcoming, if I can call it that, is that he assumes the reader has a fairly in-depth knowledge of the events of the Civil Rights movement, and so makes reference to many events and people without much explanation. One also needs to have a history of the movement (such as Taylor Branch's three volume history) as a companion to reading this analysis.

Other shortcomings are more significant. McAdam makes the same error I think many historians of the movement make in that there is a focus on the big events such as Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma and the like and he basically ignores or minimizes the hundreds of smaller efforts occurring in other cities in both throughout the South at this time that were both inspired by and part of the larger Civil Rights Movement. Also, I was surprised was no mention of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam's work in the North at the same time King and others were working in the South. How can one talk about the Black Insurgency movement or Black Power without an analysis of this important corresponding movement taking place in the North. Finally, there is little to no space given to the work of those other than King - James Lawson, Ella Baker, John Lewis, Septima Clark, Stokely Carmichael, and many others who were part of the chorus surrounding and sometimes challenging King. I think more recent scholarship has taken another look at these shortcomings to give us a fuller view of the movement.

So while the book is good for what it focuses on, there are severe limitations and so it should be used with that in mind.

[Bohdan Pechenyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic study of the Civil Rights movement in the larger context of 1930-70 “Black insurgence”. A clear statement of the political process model of social movements, which accounts for multiple dimensions and dynamics, including the structure of political opportunities, the organizational strength, the cognitive perception of self-efficacy and the response of other societal groups. Written in early 1980s, the study analyzed the preconditions, emergence, heyday and decline of the “Second Reconstruction”, emphasizing its unfinished character and predicting another upswing of insurgency at a later time, when all the salient factors line up again to create an opportunity to push the cause of equity forward. The Black Lives Matter movement corroborates that prediction.

[Kerstin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important but tedious read.

[Sil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does well until the last 1/5th when it falls apart, largely due to the author's POV as a liberal academic in 1982. Also, he doesn't mention COINTELPRO by name once, which is very strange.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A contender for the best monograph about social movements.

[Sarah]

Longer review to come

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best account of the historical development of a social movement I have read yet. Putting the Civil Rights movement into historical context and evaluating the roles of influential cultural institutions (black colleges, churches) in the spread of the drive for social change boosted my knowledge and appreciation of the Civil Rights struggle infinitely. I highly recommend this to anyone who's interested in developing their own abilities to understand and/or promote the development of social & political movements.

[Vanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doug McAdam lays out the foundation of what becomes a predominantly used theoretical framework for social movements. His critics say he is too structural, yet his account of how and why black insurgency developed is undeniably insightful and offers empirically correct observations on the political process model.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Develops the Political Process Theory for social movements popular in sociology. Lays out the usefullness of the theory by applying it to the black civil rights movement in the U.S.

[Brianne Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history both of social movements and the black insurgency are spot on. I wish he had posited a better definition of resources

[Mayada Madbouly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is Doug McAdam, nothing else to say