Reading Between the Lines

Towards An Understanding of Today's Activism

A four-session series exploring the history of social movements in the United States. Each session centers on a book selected by Brent Morris, a graduate student in the History Department of Cornell University.

	The series opens with a discussion of American Reformers: 1815-1869 by Ronald G. Walters, which treats the incredible diversity of social reform movements during the antebellum period including abolitionism, women's rights, and temperance.
	This session focuses on Dorothy Sterling's biography of the extraordinary abolitionist and women's rights activist Abby Kelly, Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelly and the Politics of Antislavery.
	A discussion of Juan Williams' Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 , a powerful investigation of the Civil Rights Movement.
	The series concludes with a conversation about Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America's Hearts and Minds by Melvin Small, which places the anti-war movement of the 1960s and 70s in a broad political and cultural context.