Books about Protests from Amazon.com

From the author Robert Lipsyte calls "The best young sportswriter in America," a rollicking, rebellious, myth-busting history of sports in America that puts politics in the ring with pop culture

In this long-awaited book from the rising superstar of sportswriting, whose blog "The Edge of Sports" is read each week by thousands of people across the country, Dave Zirin offers a riotously entertaining chronicle of larger-than-life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what amounts to an alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin's eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of—and a spur toward—the political conflicts that shape American society.

Half a century before Jackie Robinson was born, the black ballplayer Moses Fleetwood Walker brandished a revolver to keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when almost no black athletes were allowed on the U.S. Olympic team, athletes held a Counter Olympics where a third of the participants were African American.

A People's History of Sports in the United States is replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while anyone interested in history will be amazed by the connections Zirin draws between politics and pop flies. As Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop, puts it, "After you read him, you'll never see sports the same way again.".
Price: $16.82 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As founder of one of the most influential political blogs, DailyKos, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga establishes the fundamental laws that govern today's new era of digital activism.

The Sixties are over and the rules of power have been transformed. In order to change the world one needs to know how to manipulate the media, not just march in the streets. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, otherwise known as "Kos," is today's symbol of digital activism, giving a voice to everyday people. In Taking on the System, Kos has taken a cue from his revolutionary predecessor's doctrine, Saul Alinksy's Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and places this epic hand-book in today's digital era, empowering every American to make a difference in the 21st century.

As founder of the largest political blog in the nation, Kos knows how it's done, because he's done it with tremendous success. In Taking on the System, he shares practical guidelines on how grassroots movements can thrive in the age of global information, while referencing historical and present examples of the tragedy caused without those actions.

The walls between the people and the power the so-called rabble and the so-called elite are being torn down by technology, and a new army of amateurs are storming the barriers to effect political, cultural, and environmental transformation. Readers will come to understand how they too can change the world..
Price: $11.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Bill Ayers was born in privilege and is today a highly respected educator and community activist. For ten years, he lived as a fugitive Ayers's story of how a young pacifist came to help found one of the most radical political organizations in U.S. history is told here with amazing candor and immediacy..
Price: $8.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $4.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, 2001...

...the federal government detained several hundred people suspected of terrorist involvement, and continued to search for hundreds more. Some were overseas, some were on the run, but most were already at home -- in America.

Who are these people? Where did they come from? And how could there be so many terrorists or suspected terrorists living among us without action being taken? In American Jihad, Steven Emerson, the world's leading authority on domestic Islamic terrorist networks, tells the full story of the rise of those who wish to destroy the United States from within.

From the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, to foiled attacks on the New York City subway system, to a stunning range of murders across the country, there were numerous warning signs that the "American Jihad" had been gaining momentum. With an up-to-the-minute afterword that explains the stops and starts of the post-9/11 investigation, American Jihad reveals the full story that only Emerson knows -- and the reasons America failed to stop the most devastating attack in history on our own soil. This is a frightening and crucial book for anyone who needs to understand the threat within our borders..
Price: $5.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An Atlas of Radical Cartography makes an important contribution to a growing cultural movement that traverses the boundaries between art, cartography, geography and activism. It pairs writers with artists, architects, designers and collectives to address the role of the map as political agent (rather than neutral document). Ten mapping projects dealing with social and political issues such as migration, incarceration, globalization, housing rights, garbage and energy issues, are complemented by 10 critical essays and dialogues responding to each map. The maps themselves are printed as posters, unbound for leisurely perusal. Among the contributors are artists Trevor Paglen, John Emerson, Ashley Hunt and Pedro Lasch, and essayists Avery Gordon, Heather Rogers, Alejandro De Acosta and Jenny Price. An Atlas of Radical Cartography also serves as a catalogue to the exhibition An Atlas, which has been touring the United States and internationally since July of 2007..
Price: $19.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Set in the Kaw River Valley where Paretsky grew up, Bleeding Kansas is the story of the Schapens and the Grelliers, two farm families whose histories have been entwined since the 1850s, when their ancestors settled the valley as antislavery emigrants.

Today, the Schapen family, terrified by the lawlessness of the 1970s-when Lawrence was the most violent college town in the nation-has turned to that old- time religion for security. The Schapens keep a close eye on all their neighbors, most especially the Grelliers. They maintain careful track of everyone's misdeeds, printing the most egregious on their family website. When Gina Haring, a Wiccan, moves into an empty farmhouse and starts practicing pagan rites, the family members are so outraged that they begin an active harassment campaign against the Wiccans.

The Schapens worry, too, about who stands better with the Lord: their family or the Grelliers. When a Schapen cow gives birth to what may be a "Perfect Red Heifer"-needed if the temple is ever rebuilt in Jerusalem-the Schapens feel convinced that God is indeed smiling on them.

Despite parental cautions, the Grelliers' teenagers are enraged by the Schapens. All their short lives, they and the young Schapens have fought. One particularly angry confrontation causes Chip Grellier to be expelled from school and consequentlyto join the army. Chip's death in Iraq is the catalyzing event for momentous changes in the lives of not only both the Schapens and the Grelliers but of all the families in the valley. The powerful, climactic scene at Gina Haring's Samhain bonfire will forever haunt the reader..
Price: $2.32 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The study of two demagogues, whose vast popularity explains much about Depression-era America..
Price: $6.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]