Ebook246 pages6 hours
It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Activists and politicians have long recognized the power of a good story to move people to action. In early 1960 four black college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave. Within a month sit-ins spread to thirty cities in seven states. Student participants told stories of impulsive, spontaneous action—this despite all the planning that had gone into the sit-ins. “It was like a fever,” they said.
Francesca Polletta’s It Was Like a Fever sets out to account for the power of storytelling in mobilizing political and social movements. Drawing on cases ranging from sixteenth-century tax revolts to contemporary debates about the future of the World Trade Center site, Polletta argues that stories are politically effective not when they have clear moral messages, but when they have complex, often ambiguous ones. The openness of stories to interpretation has allowed disadvantaged groups, in particular, to gain a hearing for new needs and to forge surprising political alliances. But popular beliefs in America about storytelling as a genre have also hurt those challenging the status quo.
A rich analysis of storytelling in courtrooms, newsrooms, public forums, and the United States Congress, It Was Like a Fever offers provocative new insights into the dynamics of culture and contention.
Francesca Polletta’s It Was Like a Fever sets out to account for the power of storytelling in mobilizing political and social movements. Drawing on cases ranging from sixteenth-century tax revolts to contemporary debates about the future of the World Trade Center site, Polletta argues that stories are politically effective not when they have clear moral messages, but when they have complex, often ambiguous ones. The openness of stories to interpretation has allowed disadvantaged groups, in particular, to gain a hearing for new needs and to forge surprising political alliances. But popular beliefs in America about storytelling as a genre have also hurt those challenging the status quo.
A rich analysis of storytelling in courtrooms, newsrooms, public forums, and the United States Congress, It Was Like a Fever offers provocative new insights into the dynamics of culture and contention.
Related to It Was Like a Fever
Related ebooks
Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ethical Voices: Practicing Public Relations With Integrity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1977: A Cultural Moment in Composition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChicanx Utopias: Pop Culture and the Politics of the Possible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanities and Public Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Delivering the People's Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreatures of Politics: Media, Message, and the American Presidency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mediation and Protest Movements Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFraming Public Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Points of Departure: Rethinking Student Source Use and Writing Studies Research Methods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCapital of Capital: Money, Banking, and Power in New York City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Triangle of Representation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeminist Connections: Rhetoric and Activism across Time, Space, and Place Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPower to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Making Sense: Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrans/acting Culture, Writing, and Memory: Essays in Honour of Barbara Godard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmateurs without Borders: The Aspirations and Limits of Global Compassion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEconomics After Neoliberalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenre Matters: Essays in Theory and Criticism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Knowing Subjects: Cognitive Cultural Studies and Early Modern Spanish Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnruly Audience: Folk Interventions in Popular Media Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEducation, Justice & Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Professionalisation of Political Communication Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Save Your Soul: Work in Advertising: A Cheeky Proposal From America's Most Condemned Adman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Album: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for It Was Like a Fever
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
It Was Like a Fever - Francesca Polletta
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1