Resisting Reagan

An analysis of the US Central America peace movement. This work explains why more than 100,000 US citizens marched in the streets, illegally housed refugees, travelled to Central American war zones, committed civil disobedience, and hounded their political representatives to contest the Reagan administration's policy of sponsoring wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Focusing on the movement's three most important national campaigns - Witness for Peace, Sanctuary, and the Pledge of Resistance - this work demonstrates the centrality of morality as a political motivator, highlights the importance of political opportunities in movement outcomes, and examines the social structuring of insurgent consciousness. Based on extensive surveys, interviews, and research, the book aims to increase understanding of the formation of individual activist identities, of national movement dynamics, and of religious resources for political activism.