Often overlooked, the student demonstration at Bowling Green State University was the first and most successful sixties campus protest one that speaks volumes about America s transition from the social mores of the 1950s to 1960s activism. What began as a protest against outdated rules about dating and student behavior quickly turned toward political objectives about civil liberties and ousted the university president.The authors, two of whom were present on campus during the demonstration, tell the story of what began as dissent against the old schoolmarm rules a fifties-style protest and how it quickly transformed into a full-fledged sixties crusade, using the new issues, tactics, and identities of the new decade. A major force was an early flexing of feminist muscles. When the uprising succeeded, largely through female leadership, the civil liberties of women were brought up to date.Drawing on the sociological ideas of Weber, Durkheim, and Marx, this book depicts how young activists broke the fifties mold, little aware that many of their ideals would be echoed in the Port Huron Statement just a year later, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement subsequently, many important sixties protests. It is also a vivid portrait of how the 50s became the 60s in America."

This book examines several sociological perspectives on the defining characteristics of modernity through the construction of conceptual models. Each model specifies the prime movers of the social system and the key agencies of change and development. According to one model, technology is the moving force in society, while another emphasizes metropolitan dominance, and yet another concentrates on materialistic values and consumerism. A growing number of social scientists perceive knowledge to be the driving force of modernity; yet others emphasize cultural pluralism or mass society. Because of the many ways dramatic changes are occurring in so many different directions at the same time, the multiple realities of modernity are recognized and clarified. Accelerations of experimentation and innovation are occurring in all areas of social life. The Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and civil society are emphasized as the pathways to modernity. The themes of relativity, incompleteness, uncertainty, and fragmentation are implicated in postmodernist critiques of the values of the enlightenment.

A fascinating exploration of our evolving national psyche, this book chronicles major traumas in recent American history--"from the Depression and Pearl Harbor, to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr., to Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Columbine--"how we responded to them as a nation, and what our responses mean. Reflecting on American popular culture as well as the media, this edition includes a new chapter on 9/11 and other acts of terror within the United States, as well as coverage of the Columbia space shuttle disaster. New student-friendly features, including discussion questions and "Symbolic Events" boxes in each chapter, give the book added value as a classroom supplement.

Intimacy and Alienation is an examination of contemporary male/female relationships. The authors present a conceptual framework for the types and degrees of estrangement that are present in intimate relationships.

Often overlooked, the student demonstration at Bowling Green State University was the first and most successful sixties campus protest one that speaks volumes about America s transition from the social mores of the 1950s to 1960s activism. What began as a protest against outdated rules about dating and student behavior quickly turned toward political objectives about civil liberties and ousted the university president.The authors, two of whom were present on campus during the demonstration, tell the story of what began as dissent against the old schoolmarm rules a fifties-style protest and how it quickly transformed into a full-fledged sixties crusade, using the new issues, tactics, and identities of the new decade. A major force was an early flexing of feminist muscles. When the uprising succeeded, largely through female leadership, the civil liberties of women were brought up to date.Drawing on the sociological ideas of Weber, Durkheim, and Marx, this book depicts how young activists broke the fifties mold, little aware that many of their ideals would be echoed in the Port Huron Statement just a year later, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement subsequently, many important sixties protests. It is also a vivid portrait of how the 50s became the 60s in America."

Eber and Neal address some of the theoretical issues connected with symbolic constructions of reality through human memory and its subsequent representation. Linkages between what we remember and how we represent it give humans their distinctive characteristics. We construct our reality from how we perceive the events in our lives and, from that reality, we create a symbol system to describe our world. It is through such symbolic constructions that we are provided with a usable backdrop for shaping our memories and organizing them into meaningful lines of action.
These case studies present a new and creative synthesis of the multiple meanings of memory and representation within the context of contemporary perceptions of truth.

The essays in this collection present communities beset by unexpected social and physical events. Some outline immediate responses that soon pass and some that will not go away. Who would have foreseen that Elvis would be a phenomenon apparently as lasting as the faces on Mount Rushmore? Cultural history will not allow us to forget the H. G. Wells account of the Martian attack, nor can we ever forget the continued terror of the Chernobyl explosion. Ordinary Reactions to Extraordinary Events catalogues on the Geiger counter of human emotions societal reactions to events both earthshaking and culture-disturbing.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.