Abolitionist-feminist Angelina Grimke's "Pennsylvania Hall" address in 1838 is more than an important early feminist document. Through the use of rhetorical techniques (such as those known to contemporary feminists as elements of "consciousness raising"), Grimke empowers herself and her women listeners through the act of…

Early political struggles over principles of governance culminated in our "commercially competitive civil society" in which numbers equate with power, resulting in disempowerment of rural people, decreasing rural influence on public policy, and consequent irrelevant education in rural communities. Education can provide the basis for a…

Reviews the literature attesting to the strengths of African-American families and explores ways in which those strengths can be affirmed in the infrastructure of the family system. Explores a conceptualization of empowerment that involves rejecting a structural functionalist perspective in favor of a sociocultural framework. Discusses…

China's official history maintains that the radical egalitarianism of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) led to economic disaster. This book challenges that view. Drawing on local interviews and records in rural Jimo County, Shandong Province, this study contends that the Cultural Revolution's political convulsions democratized village political…

Rereading the history of basic writing can serve as a context for and a springboard to a reading of selected contemporary basic writing textbooks. For critical scrutiny, articles by Joseph Harris and David Bartholomae offer retellings of the history of basic writing, retellings that challenge the more "heroic" tellings that have become…

This paper describes the careers of four notable Mexican American women, including their educational and family backgrounds, achievements, and importance as role models for young Hispanic women. Marie Acosta-Colon's political activism began as a college student volunteering for presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Active in political…

The Southern Paiute Indians embraced English and realized that letter writing was a good way to communicate with distant people. They welcomed and attended schools. Excerpts from letters demonstrate that Paiute Indians wrote often to White officials advancing their issues or protesting mistreatment, as well as to each other to maintain their…

Almost unnoticed, growing numbers of working poor people are entering politics at the community level in dozens of major cities in Texas and across the United States. These people are unusual because they view politics as a long-term process to build relationships, new institutions, and humane communities. This book tells the story of a new kind…

Among the protest movements of the 1960s, the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) emerged as one of the principal Chicano organizations seeking social change. This in-depth study of MAYO is based on interviews, letters, diaries, position papers, participant observations, and secondary sources such as newspapers and articles. The…

Griff Foley's (1999) framework for analysis of learning in social movements is a way to examine how participants replace dominant discourses with emancipatory discourses. Dorothy Day's use of advocacy journalism, development of alternative, radical communities of faith, and ongoing challenge to the dominant culture through public protest and…

Reports how the prolonged 1978 Levittown (New York) teachers strike initially depleted resources and created problems but proved to be the impetus for development of an effective school system. Reviews sources of conflict that led to the strike, reactions of community and teachers, and reforms focused on teacher empowerment. (FMW)

Based on structured interviews with Interlocken students, staff, parents, and alumni, this book presents a historical account of the international coeducational camp, Interlocken, founded in 1961, and its practice and philosophy of experiential education. Section 1 explains the innovative summer-camp/youth-travel mission of Interlocken and its…

In 1932, Myles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Horton created an adult education center dedicated to helping groups of primarily poor and uneducated people strive together to solve their social, economic, and political problems and conflicts by mining their own experiences and awareness. In this book, Horton…

This book examines the development, implementation, and aftermath of the U.S. government's language policy for indigenous people from 1860 to 1900. Analysis of archival documents, autobiographies, ethnography, and fiction examines why and how government-sponsored English-language classrooms for Native students came into being, how European…