The 1970s were a complex, multilayered, and critical part of a long era of profound societal change and an essential component of the decade beforeâseveral of the most iconic events of `the sixtiies` occurred in the ten years that followed. The Hidden 1970s explores the distinctiveness of those years, a time when radicals tried to change the world as the world changed around them.
Prisoner Support in the 1970s
October 13, 2010 Freebird Bookstore, 123 Columbia Street, Brooklyn www.freebirdbooks.blogspot.com
Sponsored by Freebird Bookstore and NYC Books Through Bars
BOOK LAUNCH & RADICAL HISTORY DISCUSSION: Prisoner Support in the 1970s
Editor & contributors to the new book The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism (just published by Rutgers University Press) at Freebird Bookstore for a conversation focusing on the importance of prisoner support in the left-wing social movements of the 1970s.
Panel will feature editor Dan Berger and contributors Vikki Law, Andy Cornell and Matt Meyer. This is the Brooklyn book launch for The Hidden 1970s and will have a prison-related focus.
More about the book:
The 1970s were a complex, multilayered, and critical part of a long era of profound societal change and an essential component of the decade beforeâseveral of the most iconic events of `the sixtiies` occurred in the ten years that followed. The Hidden 1970s explores the distinctiveness of those years, a time when radicals tried to change the world as the world changed around them.
This powerful collection is a compelling assessment of left-wing social movements in a period many have described as dominated by conservatism or confusion. Scholars examine critical and largely buried legacies of the 1970s. The decade of Nixon`s fall and Reagan`s rise also saw widespread indigenous militancy, prisoner uprisings, transnational campaigns for self-determination, pacifism, and queer theories of play as political action. Contributors focus on diverse topics, including the internationalization of Black Power and Native sovereignty, organizing for Puerto Rican independence among Latinos and whites, and womenââ¬â¢s self-defense. Essays and ideas trace the roots of struggles from the 1960s through the 1970s, providing fascinating insight into the myriad ways that radical social movements shaped American political culture in the 1970s and the many ways they continue to do so today.
About the Editor: Dan Berger is the author of Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity and the coeditor of Letters from Young Activists.
Matt Meyer is an educator-activist, based in New York City. Founding PJSA Co-Chair along with USF Dean Jennifer Turpin, Meyer has long worked to bring together academics and activists for lasting social change. A former public draft registration resister and chair of the War Resisters League, he continues to serve as convener of the War Resisters International Africa Working Group.
Victoria Law is a writer, photographer and mother. She is a co-founder of Books Through Bars--New York City, an organization that sends free radical literature and books to prisoners nationwide, and editor of the âzine Tenacious: Writings from Women in Prison. She is also the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (PM Press 2009).
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