The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements Book

Jasper's book is a behemoth, simultaneously a critique of existent and extant theory on social movements and protest and a thorough advancement of a new cultural approach to the study of these phenomena. He says in the conclusion to the book that the development of new tools enables their application to new situations, and in many senses that's the aim of the book: to develop a new language, conceptual vocabulary, and perspective on how social movements function and impact the world for better or worse, supplying future researchers, theorists, and even protestors with a new set of tools by which to advance political and democratic ends. All of this is detailed in a comprehensive, clear, and very readable fashion, with clear and interesting illustrations all throughout taken from Jasper's firsthand observations and research with some of the most active and impactful protest groups in recent American history. All of it adds up to a fascinating and enlightening read, albeit one that is conceptually dense and at times maybe a tad overlong.