Civil Rights Movement Summary

The American Civil Rights Movement is a subject that is highly studies in Sociology. There are seven chapters of the book which explain the rise and fall of the Black Insurgency. Empirical analysis of each of the seven chapter headings is done to see how the current social movement theories apply. The McAdams book goes into details of how social groups develop and the way they navigated through diverse spheres seeking political and economic changes. Per the author, the book has two objectives. The first objective is to explain the current state of the social theories regarding social movements, and the second objective is about how the different mobilization models applied to the black insurgency of the civil rights movements. There are
The classic political pluralist model is the first model discussed in the book which is quite ironic since today the pluralistic model has vanished from the US political system. This model is based on the notion that there are many different competing groups in politics that hold a portion of power that prevent any single group from wielding complete authority which would prevent others from participating in the political process. Then there is a brief statement about what theories are considered under the classical model and how they are similar except for minor parts of the model. The sequence for the classical model is given as social strain>disruptive psychological state>social movement. The first theory that is summarized is Mass Society theory which is based on the premise of social isolation being the main requirement for social protest. The sequence for mass society theory: Social Isolation>Alienation and Anxiety> Extreme Behavior (Social Movement). Next, McAdams explains Status Inconsistency as the status discrepancy with one aspects of an individual’s status being considered a
Even with the supporting evidence throughout the book for the Political Process model, I fail to see how it can be the sole explanation for such a large and successful movement. The inclusion of the more analytical details seemed to overcomplicate the subject rather than aid the explanations. I would like to have seen more information on the actual historical events and not just the pieces that are referencing the political aspects which support the authors claim. I would have also like to see more information about how the actual politicians and constituents were dealing with the rise of the insurgency since their approval of the movement would be necessary for the movement to have gain the success that it