How Social Movements Die

Christian Davenport is Professor of Political Science and Faculty Associate at the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan, as well as Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. He is the author of State Repression and the Promise of Democratic Peace (Cambridge, 2007) and Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party (Cambridge, 2010), which won an award for the best book in racial politics and social movements from the American Political Science Association. He is the editor of Repression and Mobilization, with Carol Mueller and Hank Johnston (2004), and Paths to State Repression: Human Rights Violations and Contentious Politics (2000).

• Introduction; Part I. Theory: 1. Killing social movements from the outside or the inside; 2. Killing social movements from the outside and the inside; Part II. Case: 3. Repression and red squads; 4. Record keeping and data collection; Part III. Origins: 5. We shall overcome?: From GOAL to the Freedom Now Party; 6. We shall overthrow!: from the Malcolm X Society to the Republic of New Africa; Part IV. Examination: 7. Birth of a black nation; 8. To Ocean Hill–Brownsville and b(l)ack; 9. New Bethel and the end of the beginning; 10. When separatists separate; 11. Mississippi: the last stand(off); Part V. Conclusion: 12. Understanding the death of social movement organizations.

'Marshalling insightful analysis, brilliant archival research, and extensive knowledge, Davenport explains the emergence, growth, and demise of social movements. This book is a real gem.' Scott Gates, Peace Research Institute Oslo and Norwegian University of Science and Technology