McAdam Morris Combined

Sociology 924: Social Movements Seminar Calendar Pamela Oliver

Sociology 924: Seminar on Social Movements

Copies of this page for download: PDF RTF

Copies of my longer reading notes: Morris PDF RTF McAdam PDF RTF

The Morris and McAdam books are both excellent works which I highly recommend both now and in your later lives as teachers. They provide excellent lecture material and can be assigned to undergraduates.

Skim each book before reading closely. For the McAdam book, you can skim the section headings and look at the tables and graphics, which give you some idea of the kind of evidence being adduced. There are no tables in the Morris book, but you can also get some idea of key themes by reading the chapter titles, first paragraph of each chapter, and boldface headings. You may also wish to examine Morris's appendices on method.

Focus of attention:

McAdam. Key chapters are 3 (political process model) and 4 (very short on hypotheses, could have been in 3); and analysis chapters 6-8. Lets make sure everyone has read 6 (1950s) and 7 (early 1960s) as these are the periods covered by Morris, but I really recommend 5 (historical background on shifting political opportunities) and 8 (decline of the movement) as well. You may wish to look at pp. 112-116 to see how the historical arguments are integrated into a time series model. (I have taken detailed notes on chapter 5, because I use it in lecture.)

Morris. Read introduction (as it sketches key themes), Chapters 1 (social background), 2 (1950s, correlate with McAdam Ch 6), 3 & 4 (movement centers, SCLC – his key empirical arguments about structure of the movement), 8 & 9 (about the sit-in movements, correlate with McAdam's Ch. 7), 11 (a sketch of his theoretical arguments). Chapters 5-7 and 10 on organizational issues & struggles are also good. The Morris chapters are longer, as they have a narrative style, but you can hopefully read them more quickly.

Sociology 924: Social Movements Calendar Pamela Oliver