Ebook246 pages6 hours
It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Activists and politicians have long recognized the power of a good story to move people to action. In early 1960 four black college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave. Within a month sit-ins spread to thirty cities in seven states. Student participants told stories of impulsive, spontaneous action—this despite all the planning that had gone into the sit-ins. “It was like a fever,” they said.
Francesca Polletta’s It Was Like a Fever sets out to account for the power of storytelling in mobilizing political and social movements. Drawing on cases ranging from sixteenth-century tax revolts to contemporary debates about the future of the World Trade Center site, Polletta argues that stories are politically effective not when they have clear moral messages, but when they have complex, often ambiguous ones. The openness of stories to interpretation has allowed disadvantaged groups, in particular, to gain a hearing for new needs and to forge surprising political alliances. But popular beliefs in America about storytelling as a genre have also hurt those challenging the status quo.
A rich analysis of storytelling in courtrooms, newsrooms, public forums, and the United States Congress, It Was Like a Fever offers provocative new insights into the dynamics of culture and contention.
Francesca Polletta’s It Was Like a Fever sets out to account for the power of storytelling in mobilizing political and social movements. Drawing on cases ranging from sixteenth-century tax revolts to contemporary debates about the future of the World Trade Center site, Polletta argues that stories are politically effective not when they have clear moral messages, but when they have complex, often ambiguous ones. The openness of stories to interpretation has allowed disadvantaged groups, in particular, to gain a hearing for new needs and to forge surprising political alliances. But popular beliefs in America about storytelling as a genre have also hurt those challenging the status quo.
A rich analysis of storytelling in courtrooms, newsrooms, public forums, and the United States Congress, It Was Like a Fever offers provocative new insights into the dynamics of culture and contention.
Related to It Was Like a Fever
Related ebooks
Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ethical Voices: Practicing Public Relations With Integrity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChicanx Utopias: Pop Culture and the Politics of the Possible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDelivering the People's Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRe:imagining Change: How to Use Story-Based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Walls Within: The Politics of Immigration in Modern America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFraming Public Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unruly Audience: Folk Interventions in Popular Media Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nature of Hope: Grassroots Organizing, Environmental Justice, and Political Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreatures of Politics: Media, Message, and the American Presidency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Rise of the Public Authority: Statebuilding and Economic Development in Twentieth-Century America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Building More Effective Unions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Idea of Prison Abolition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inventing the Ties That Bind: Imagined Relationships in Moral and Political Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenre Matters: Essays in Theory and Criticism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Politics of International Marriage in Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Ira Katznelson's When Affirmative Action Was White Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Public Los Angeles: A Private City's Activist Futures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMixed Race 3.0: Risk and Reward in the Digital Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Triangle of Representation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Public Work of Rhetoric: Citizen-Scholars and Civic Engagement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Freedom?: The Battle over America's Most Important Idea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economics After Neoliberalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMediation and Protest Movements Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImmigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Men Who Stare at Goats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for It Was Like a Fever
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
It Was Like a Fever - Francesca Polletta
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1