Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People

by K. Thalhammer, P. O'Loughlin, S. McFarland, M. Glazer, S. Shepela

Overview

During times of injustice, some individuals or groups courageously resist maltreatment of all people, regardless of backgrounds. Using various case studies, this book introduces readers to the broad spectrum of courageous resistance and provides a framework for analyzing the factors that motivate and sustain opposition to human rights violations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403984517
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	09/25/2007
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

KRISTINA E. THALHAMMER is Associate Professor of Political Science at Saint Olaf College, USA.

PAULA L. O'LOUGHLIN is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Morris, USA.

SAM MCFARLAND is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western Kentucky University, USA.

MYRON PERETZ GLAZER is Barbara Richmond Professor (Emeritus) in the Social Science in the Department of Sociology at Smith College, USA.

PENINA MIGDAL GLAZER is Marilyn Levin Professor (Emeritus) of History at Hampshire College, USA.

SHARON TOFFEY SHEPELA is Professor of Psychology at Hillyer College/University of Hartford, USA.

NATHAN STOLTZFUS is Associate Professor of History at Florida State University, USA.

Table of Contents

Pathways to Courageous Resistance: Ordinary People, Groups and Institutions Confront Injustice The Process of Becoming a Courageous Resister Ordinary Persons doing Extraordinary Evil The Individual as Courageous Resister to Injustice Collective Resistance to Injustice: The Special Power of People Working Together Institutions and Resisting Injustice Ordinary People's Extraordinary Courage, Impact and Hope: Conclusions from Comparing Cases of Courageous Resistance Applying What We Have Learned

Editorial Reviews

With so much evil in the world, it is of great importance to see the power of goodness. This important, well-written book gives compelling, emotionally engaging examples, and provides understanding of the roots of courageous resistance to social injustice by individuals and groups. It shows how people's values, their sense of effectiveness, their connections to other individuals, groups and institutions motivate them and enable them to act when members of some group are harmed or a community is threatened. The book offers powerful guidance and inspiration to empower ourselves, join with others, and become actors. Courageous Resistance is a valuable contribution to creating a better world. - Ervin Staub, author of The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence and The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults and Groups Help and Harm Others "This book is an especially welcome text for those teaching about human rights abuses. For those who study grave injustices such as human rights abuses, there is often a sense of despair and hopelessness regarding what people can and have done done to each other. Uniquely, what this book offers is hope. Pulling together research from multiple fields and providing a needed integrated interdisciplinary approach, this book explains how and when people choose to resist injustice. Drawing on rich case studies ranging from Rwanda to Nazi Germany, it builds a compelling and theoretically informed argument for understanding how ordinary people can and do resist injustices of all types as individuals and groups and through institutions." - Kathryn Sikkink, Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota Courgeous Resistance , remarkable in so many ways, is a major contribution to peace, conflict, and nonviolence studies, focusing on strategies for peacemaking employed by 'ordinary people' in extraordinary circumstances. Equally valuable are the psychological insights the book offers toward our understanding of how individuals in similar circumstances respond differently." - Michael True, Emeritus Professor, Assumption College, on the board of the International Peace Research Association Foundation, and Author of People Power: Fifty Peacemakers and Their Communities ' Courageous Resistance offers fresh confirmation that unjust rule and even violent repression can be resisted and eventually overturned, through nonviolent action by individuals and organized campaigns. It is a distinctive contribution to our understanding of this crucial form of political and social power that all people possess.' - Jack Duvall, President, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, co-author of A Force More Powerful

From the Publisher