Reclaiming Democracy

This study combines personal experience with political and historical analysis, while challenging a wide range of 1960s observers from George Will to Oliver Stone. In a time of cynicism about the American government's ability to solve the crises of poverty and racism, the author places the decline of political participation in historical context. She discusses ways in which democratic participation was at the heart of sixties politics; the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the women's movement, and the New Left all emphasized the everyday participation of ordinary people in activism and public life. The text illustrates that such action can make a difference in the politics of the 1990s.