Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Danver, S. L. (Ed.). (2011). Revolts, protests, demonstrations, and rebellions in American history: An encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia, by Danver, S. Copyright 2010 by ABC-CLIO INC. Reprinted by permission of ABC-CLIO INC. via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Urban Uprisings

”Los Angeles Uprising (1992)” (pp. 1095–1105)

Darwall, R. (2014). The church of Gore: Environmentalism as metaphysical belief. National Review, 66(4), 33–35.

This article examines environmentalism as a political issue, perspectives on consumerism, and the challenges and/or impossibility of reorganizing society along environmental lines.

Herod, J. (2010). Capitalists, global warming, & the climate justice movement. Anarcho – Syndicalist Review, 54, 23-28.

Can global warming be stopped within a capitalist framework—within what is arguably a global social order? This article, written from an anarcho-syndicalist point of view, makes a case for why, if the planet is to survive, decision making must be taken from the ruling, profit-oriented class and placed in the hands of ordinary people—a complete social reorganization.

Maslauskas, B. (2011). The battle for Blair Mountain. Industrial Worker, 108(8), 1–6.

The Battle for Blair Mountain, which took place in 1921, was the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. Nearly 100 years later, Blair Mountain was the site of opposition by environmentalists and labor activists to the practice of coal mining by a technique called mountaintop removal. This article tells the story of both events.

Wright, J. (2013). Only your calamity: The beginnings of activism by and for people with AIDS. Journal of the American Public Health Association, 103(10), 1788–1798.

The roots of AIDS activism, spearheaded by pioneering organizers such as Bobbi Campbell, Dan Turner, and Larry Kramer, is the subject of this powerful article that traces the efforts to politicize, humanize, and medically and ethically respond to what would become a worldwide epidemic.

Discussion: The 80s and the 90s: Social Movements that Defined a Decade

As the United States entered the 1980s, race and gender issues continued to take center stage, but other concerns also became the focus of many grassroots activists. From HIV/AIDS awareness to the environment, activists challenged local, state, and federal authorities and big business to improve the way of life for humans, animals, and the earth. In many cases, their activism not only raised awareness, but also spurred increasing government intervention.

For this week’s Discussion, you will identify a social movement that you believe defined a decade.

In preparation for this Discussion:

• Review this week’s Learning Resources. With these issues providing context for this time period, consider the many social change movements and issues that emerged or escalated during the 1980s and 1990s, including:
  • Quality of education (A Nation at Risk)
  • Access to health care
  • War on drugs
  • Gender inequalities (the feminization of poverty)
  • Ongoing civil rights movements
  • Gay rights
  • AIDS activism
  • Environmental issues
  • Urban and rural poverty
• Using the Walden Library and other reliable resources, research these varied issues and movements to gain an overview of the breadth of concerns that impacted Americans in the 1980s and 90s. Consider the background of each and the populations that were impacted.
• What changes have occurred regarding these issues?
• What impact, if any, did these movements have on the United States and the world?
• With these considerations in mind, select a movement that you think defined either the 1980s or the 1990s.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post a 2- to 3-paragraph explanation of how one social movement defined either the decade of the 1980s or the decade of the 1990s. Include in your posting a brief description of the movement, a rationale for its relevance, and the impact that this movement has had on the both the United States and the world.