Social movements are collective efforts to change society.   Some of the important movements in American history and American society today include:  the movement for independence from Great Britain, the abolitionist movement, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, several anti-war movements, the gay liberation movement, the right-to-life movement, the anti-communist movement, the environmental movement.  On a global scale, movements include various socialist and communist movements, fascist and Nazi movements, human rights movements, independence movements in many countries and regions, religious movements, the Zionist movement, fundamentalist Islamic movements, and so on. 
    Movements use a wide variety of tactics including leafleting, giving speeches, picketing, marching, striking, sitting-in, throwing stones, revolutionary uprisings, guerilla warfare, bombings and assassinations.  For each movement, there is generally a backlash or counter-movement.  Often governments attempt to repress social movements.  Sometimes these struggles between movements and authorities involve long periods of nonviolent or violent conflict.  The current "war on terror" is now recognized as a "struggle against violent extremism," i.e., as a conflict with a social movement.  Terrorism and terrorist movements will be a major focus in this course. 
    We will begin with an overview of sociological and psychological theories that provide some general ideas about social movements.  We will then examine studies of specific social movements, using the theories as guidelines.  Questions we will ask about each social movements include:   

1. When and Why Do Social Movements Occur?
2. Who Joins or Supports (or Leads) Movements?
3. Who Remains in Movements, and Who Drops Out?
4. What Do Movement Participants Think and Feel?
5. How Are Movements Organized?
6. What Do Movements Do?
7. How Do the State and Mass Media Influence Movements?
8. Why Do Movements Decline?
9. What Changes Do Movements Bring About?

    All reading material for this course will be listed on the Schedule and Assignments Page.  This page will be updated frequently, especially when we discuss current events.  Be sure to reload or refresh the page when you check it.  The readings will be available online, either in the SAKAI course management system or on the open internet.   There will be a quiz each week covering both assigned reading and material covered in class (some of which will be summarized in the class notes).   The quizzes will be in the SAKAI course management system and you may take them anywhere.  The quizzes will usually open  no later than Wednesday of each week and will close one hour before class on the following Monday.  Specific instructions for each quiz will be listed on the weekly assignments page on the Schedule and Assignments Page.  If you fail to take a quiz, you will receive a score of zero. 
    Some chapters from your instructor's book Turncoats and True Believers will be assigned reading in this course.  This 1992 book is still in print and some inexpensive used copies are available online.  I have not ordered it in the bookstore, however, but have placed the manuscript chapters in SAKAI.   If you buy a copy, I'll be glad to autograph it for you ;-).
    Although class notes will be posted, they are not intended as a substitute for attending class.  They will provide links to materials that will be on the screen in class.  Powerpoint presentations that I prepare for classes will be available in SAKAI.  Attendance is required.  Up to two classes can be missed without lowering the grade below 100% (those attending all classes will receive extra points above 100%).  These missed classes are intended to be used for good excuses, e.g., illness, death in the family, car breakdown, problems at work.  Classes missed for good excuses are not in addition to the two allowed absences.  Please save all excuses, doctors' notes, etc. and bring them to me only if you exceed the two allowed absences.  At that point I may give you an additional assignment to cover the material you missed.
      Grading will be based on midterm and final examinations, writing assignments, class attendance and participation and on the weekly SAKAI quizzes.