How have we gone from the striking bipartisan cooperation and relative economic equality of the postwar period to the extreme inequality and partisan divisions of today? In this sweeping look at American politics, Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos argue that the rise of social movements, from Civil Rights to the Tea Party, have pushed Republicans and Democrats away from the center and toward the fringes.

• Chapter 1 How Did We Get Into This Mess?


• Chapter 2 Postwar America: Bipartisan Consensus, the Median Voter, and the Absence of Social Movements


• Chapter 3 The Center Will Not Hold: The 1960s and the Shifting Racial Geography of American Politics


• Chapter 4 The Strange, Consequential Seventies


• Chapter 5 The Reagan Revolution?


• Chapter 6 The Slow-Release Revolution: 1988-2008


• Chapter 7 The Obama Years: Uncivil War


• Chapter 8 Restoring American Democracy


• References


• Notes


• Index

Doug McAdam is The Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology at Stanford University and the former Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is the author or co-author of 15 books and some 75 articles in the area of political sociology, with a special emphasis on race in the U.S., American politics, and the study of social movements and "contentious politics."
Karina Kloos is a scholar of social movements, and activist for the empowerment of marginalized groups. Her research and NGO work focus primarily on international communities and issues, with particular attention to civic and political rights of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, and women and girls globally.