It happens every summer: packs of beer-bellied men with gloves and aluminum bats, putting their middle-aged bodies to the test on the softball diamond. For some, this yearly ritual is driven by a simple desire to enjoy a good ballgame; for others, it’s a way to forge friendships—and rivalries. But for one short, wild-haired, bespectacled professor, playing softball in New York’s Central Park means a whole lot more. It's one last chance to heal the nagging wounds of Little League trauma before the rust of decline and the relentless responsibilities of fatherhood set in. Professor Baseball is the coming-of-middle-age story of New York University professor and Little League benchwarmer Edwin Amenta. As rookie manager of the Performing Arts Softball League’s doormat Sharkeys, he reverses softball’s usual brawn-over-brains formula. He coaxes his skeptical teammates to follow his sabermetric and sociological approach, based equally on Bill James and Max Weber, which in the heady days of early success he dubs “Eddy Ball.” But Amenta soon learns that his teammates’ attachments to favorite positions and time-honored (if ineffective) strategies are hard to break—especially when the team begins losing. And though he rejects the baseball-as-life metaphor, life keeps intruding on his softball season. Amenta here comes to grips with the humiliation of assisted reproduction, suffers mysterious ailments, and finds himself lingering at the sponsor’s bar, while his partner, a beautiful but baseball-challenged professor, second-guesses his book in the making. Can he turn his team—and his life—around? Packed with colorful personalities, dramatic games, and the bustle of New York life, Professor Baseball will charm anyone who has ever root, root, rooted for the underdog.

Professor Baseball: Searching for Redemption and the Perfect Lineup on the Softball Diamonds of Central Park

Amenta, Edwin

Biographies & Memoirs

University of Chicago Press

According to conventional wisdom, American social policy has always been exceptional--exceptionally stingy and backwards. But Edwin Amenta reminds us here that sixty years ago the United States led the world in spending on social provision. He combines history and political theory to account for this surprising fact--and to explain why the country's leading role was short-lived.
 The orthodox view is that American social policy began in the 1930s as a two-track system of miserly "welfare" for the unemployed and generous "social security" for the elderly. However, Amenta shows that the New Deal was in fact a bold program of relief, committed to providing jobs and income support for the unemployed. Social security was, by comparison, a policy afterthought. By the late 1930s, he shows, the U.S. pledged more of its gross national product to relief programs than did any other major industrial country.
 Amenta develops and uses an institutional politics theory to explain how social policy expansion was driven by northern Democrats, state-based reformers, and political outsiders. And he shows that retrenchment in the 1940s was led by politicians from areas where beneficiaries of relief were barred from voting. He also considers why some programs were nationalized, why some states had far-reaching "little New Deals," and why Britain--otherwise so similar to the United States--adopted more generous social programs. Bold Relief will transform our understanding of the roots of American social policy and of the institutional and political dynamics that will shape its future.

Bold Relief: Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern Social Policy

Business & Money

Economics

Princeton University Press

According to conventional wisdom, American social policy has always been exceptional-exceptionally stingy and backwards. But Edwin Amenta reminds us here that sixty years ago the United States led the world in spending on social provision. He combines history and political theory to account for this surprising fact-and to explain why the country's leading role was short-lived. The orthodox view is that American social policy began in the 1930s as a two-track system of miserly "welfare" for the unemployed and generous "social security" for the elderly. However, Amenta shows that the New Deal was in fact a bold program of relief, committed to providing jobs and income support for the unemployed. Social security was, by comparison, a policy afterthought. By the late 1930s, he shows, the U.S. pledged more of its gross national product to relief programs than did any other major industrial country. Amenta develops and uses an institutional politics theory to explain how social policy expansion was driven by northern Democrats, state-based reformers, and political outsiders. And he shows that retrenchment in the 1940s was led by politicians from areas where beneficiaries of relief were barred from voting. He also considers why some programs were nationalized, why some states had far-reaching "little New Deals" and why Britain-otherwise so similar to the United States-adopted more generous social programs. Bold Relief will transform our understanding of the roots of American social policy and of the institutional and political dynamics that will shape its future.

Bold Relief

When Movements Matter accounts for the origins of Social Security as we know it. The book tells the overlooked story of the Townsend Plan--a political organization that sought to alleviate poverty and end the Great Depression through a government-provided retirement stipend of $200 a month for every American over the age of sixty.
 Both the Townsend Plan, which organized two million older Americans into Townsend clubs, and the wider pension movement failed to win the generous and universal senior citizens' pensions their advocates demanded. But the movement provided the political impetus behind old-age policy in its formative years and pushed America down the track of creating an old-age welfare state.
 Drawing on a wealth of primary evidence, historical detail, and arresting images, Edwin Amenta traces the ups and downs of the Townsend Plan and its elderly leader Dr. Francis E. Townsend in the struggle to remake old age. In the process, Amenta advances a new theory of when social movements are influential.
 The book challenges the conventional wisdom that U.S. old-age policy was a result mainly of the Depression or farsighted bureaucrats. It also debunks the current view that America immediately embraced Social Security when it was adopted in 1935. And it sheds new light on how social movements that fail to achieve their primary goals can still influence social policy and the way people relate to politics.

When Movements Matter: The Townsend Plan and the Rise of Social Security (Princeton Studies in American Politics)

History

Americas

Rough Draft of History: A Century of US Social Movements in the News (Princeton Studies in American Politics)

Review\n“A comprehensive, compelling analysis of print media’s coverage of social movements, Rough Draft of History is a great read for activists and social movement scholars alike. Amenta and Caren explore the central role of media and the factors that influence the coverage social movements receive. This careful investigation extends our understanding of the role of the Fourth Estate in movement politics.”―Lee Ann Banaszak, Pennsylvania State University\n"Rough Draft of History is an evocative, often surprising consideration of the links between social movements and the press. Combining historical sweep with analytical sensibilities, this fascinating account of media attention and the notice-seeking strategies of movements illuminates critical trends and developments."―Ira Katznelson, Columbia University\n“Scholars use newspaper articles to understand social movements, but rarely have they sought to systematically understand the dynamics of press coverage. In this important and innovative book, Amenta and Caren do just that, offering a rich, historically sensitive portrait of American social movements as seen through the often-distorting lens of the country’s newspapers.”―Doug McAdam, Stanford University\n“This exciting and important book breaks fresh ground in the study of political movements. Amenta and Caren look at four major newspapers from 1900 forward, to learn which movements got coverage, what kinds of coverage they got, when they got it, and why. Rough Draft of History has much to teach us.”―James Morone, Brown University\n“Examining a century of media coverage, Amenta and Caren offer a panoramic perspective on social movements. The results are eye-opening, informing our understanding of how movements gain traction, and why some succeed and others fail. A very impressive work of social science.”―Paul Pierson, University of California, Berkeley\n“Rough Draft of History combines a new theory along with some very interesting data to show how media coverage of social movements is a function of organizational characteristics, media structure, and political dynamics.”―Kevin Reuning, Miami University of Ohio\nA comprehensive account of the media's coverage of social movements in the United States\nA new view of twentieth-century US social movements, Rough Draft of History examines how national newspapers covered social movements and the organizations driving them. Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren identify hundreds of movement organizations, from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to Occupy Wall Street, and document their treatment in the news. In doing so, Amenta and Caren provide an alternative account of US history from below, as it was refracted through journalistic lenses.\nIconic organizations in the women’s rights, African American civil rights, and environmental movements gained substantial media attention. But so too did now-forgotten groups, such as the German-American Alliance, Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Peace and Freedom Party. Amenta and Caren show why some organizations made big news while others did not, why some were treated well while others were handled roughly. They recover forgotten stories, including that of the Townsend Plan, a Depression-era organization that helped establish Social Security. They also reveal that the media handled the civil rights movement far more harshly than popular histories recount. And they detail the difficulties movements face in today’s brave new media world.\nDrawing from digitized newspapers across a century and through to the present, Rough Draft of History offers insights for those seeking social and political change and those trying to make sense of it.

Caren, Neal

A comprehensive account of the media's coverage of social movements in the United States A new view of twentieth-century US social movements, Rough Draft of History examines how national newspapers covered social movements and the organizations driving them. Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren identify hundreds of movement organizations, from the Women's Christian Temperance Union to Occupy Wall Street, and document their treatment in the news. In doing so, Amenta and Caren provide an alternative account of US history from below, as it was refracted through journalistic lenses. Iconic organizations in the women's rights, African American civil rights, and environmental movements gained substantial media attention. But so too did now-forgotten groups, such as the German-American Alliance, Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Peace and Freedom Party. Amenta and Caren show why some organizations made big news while others did not, why some were treated well while others were handled roughly. They recover forgotten stories, including that of the Townsend Plan, a Depression-era organization that helped establish Social Security. They also reveal that the media handled the civil rights movement far more harshly than popular histories recount. And they detail the difficulties movements face in today's brave new media world. Drawing from digitized newspapers across a century and through to the present, Rough Draft of History offers insights for those seeking social and political change and those trying to make sense of it.

Changing Minds: Social Movements’ Cultural Impacts

Politics & Social Sciences

Polletta, Francesca

Social Sciences

Russell Sage Foundation

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology is a complete reference guide, reflecting the scope and quality of the discipline, and highlighting emerging topics in the field. <ul>
<li>Global in focus, offering up-to-date topics from an interdisciplinary, international set of scholars addressing key issues concerning globalization, social movements, and citizenship</li> <li>The majority of chapters are new, including those on environmental politics, international terrorism, security, corruption, and human rights</li> <li>Revises and updates all previously published chapters to include new themes and topics in political sociology</li> <li>Provides an overview of scholarship in the field, with chapters working independently and collectively to examine the full range of contributions to political sociology</li> <li>Offers a challenging yet accessible and complete reference guide for students and scholars</li> </ul>

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology

Scott, Alan

Nash, Kate

Anthropology

Wiley/Blackwell

Changing Minds

New York, NY : Russell Sage Foundation

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