GOING TO EXTREMES

The effects of what would later be termed the Great Recession reverberated for years, even as the U.S. began to climb out of it in the second half of 2009. An unexpected side effect grew out of the economic morass, and that was the birth or revitalization of social movements on both ends of the political spectrum. These activist groups would soon come to exert an oversized influence on elections, social policy, and the country at large.

In the universe of the average American worker — far removed from the madness and greed of the