Power & Popular Protest Latin American Social Movements

"A wonderful starting point for studying social movements in contemporary Latin America and for analyzing how unique processes of dependent capitalist development, and attendant political structures, influence their emergence and impact. This edited volume comes just in time, before we get too carried away with Euro-centered theories of new social movements and lose sight of what is really happening at the grassroots. It is one of the first collections of its kind published in English, and as such it is a rich and long-overdue contribution. "and#151;Diane E. Davis, Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs

"Carefully conceived, Power and Popular Protest is a superb text to be consulted in the years to come by anyone interested in understanding contemporary Latin American politics and society."and#151;Rosario Espinal, Contemporary Sociology

Eclectic and insightful, these essaysand#151;by historians, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologistsand#151;represent a range of subjects on the cause and consequence of protest movements in Latin America, from an examination of the varying faces but common origins of rural guerilla movements, to a discussion of multiclass protests, to an essay on las madres de plaza de mayo. This volume is an indispensable text for anyone concerned with reducing inequities and injustices around the world, so that oppressed people need not be defiant before their concerns are addressed. A new preface and epilogue discuss recent social movements.

Susan Eckstein is Professor of Sociology at Boston University.