Courageous Resistance The Power of Ordinary People

by Thalhammer, Kristina E.; McFarland, Sam; O'Loughlin, Paula L.; Stoltzfus, Nathan; Shepela, Sharon Toffey; Glazer, Penina Migdal; Glazer, Myron Peretz

• ISBN13: 9781403984517
• ISBN10: 1403984514
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

During times of grave injustice, some individuals, groups, and organizations courageously resist maltreatment of all people, regardless of their backgrounds. Courageous resisters have assisted others in such locales as Nazi-controlled Europe throughout the 1930s and 40s, Argentina during the " Dirty War" of the 1970s, Rwanda in the 1990s genocide and Iraqi prisons in recent years. Using these and other case studies, this book introduces readers to the broad spectrum of courageous resistance and provides a framework for analyzing the factors that motivate and sustain opposition to human rights violations.

Author Biography

Kristina Thalhammer is Associate Professor of Political Science at Saint Olaf College. She has published numerous articles on political tolerance and on opposition to repressive regimes in Argentina.
 
Paula O’Loughlin is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Her research interests include political psychology and human rights.
 
Sam McFarland is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western Kentucky University.  His research interests and publications focus on ethnocentrism, authoritarianism, human rights, and the psychology of religion.  
 

Myron Peretz Glazer is Barbara Richmond Professor (Emeritus)  in the Social Science in the Department of Sociology at Smith College. 

 

Penina Migdal Glazer is Marilyn Levin Professor (Emeritus) of History at Hampshire College.  The Glazers have published extensively, their publications include the coauthored books, The Whistleblowers: Exposing Corruption in Government and Industry (1989) and Environmental Crusaders: Confronting Disaster and Mobilizing Community (1998).

 

Sharon Toffey Shepela is Professor of Psychology at Hillyer College/University of Hartford. She is a social psychologist who in a 1999 paper coined the term “courageous resistance.” Her research focuses on the conditions that foster courageous resistance and on the effects of discrimination on women and their children and the public policy implications of those effects.

Nathan Stoltzfus is Associate Professor of History at Florida State University and an author or editor of four books and numerous articles, published in seven languages, including the award-winning Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany (1996).  

Table of Contents

Pathways to Courageous Resistance: Ordinary People, Groups and Institutions Confront Injustice

The Process of Becoming a Courageous Resister

Ordinary Persons doing Extraordinary Evil

The Individual as Courageous Resister to Injustice

Collective Resistance to Injustice

The Special Power of People Working Together

Institutions and Resisting Injustice

Ordinary People's Extraordinary Courage, Impact and Hope

Conclusions from Comparing Cases of Courageous Resistance

Applying What We Have Learned

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.