Art and Social Movements

"Art and Social Movements makes a powerful statement about the continued vitality of—and need for—the creative arts in radical political movements. By effectively synthesizing grounded analysis of grassroots politics with deft theoretical explanations of artistic genres, Edward J. McCaughan provides what I believe is the most significant empirically grounded study of cultural politics in Latin America since the anthology Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-Visioning Latin American Social Movements was published in 1998." - Howard Campbell, author of Mexican Memoir: A Personal Account of Anthropology and Radical Politics in Oaxaca

"Only when the art and culture of social movements are explored along with their politics do we begin to have a vital and comprehensive sense of the emotions and creativity involved. The sad, violent, and arbitrary border between Latin America and Latino USA too often ignores the history of collaboration and influence across that fictitious line. Through personal experience and exhaustive research, Edward J. McCaughan sets the record straight." - Margaret Randall, author of To Change the World: My Years in Cuba

“As more works on 1968 Mexico and its role in the Cold War continue to be published, this text will remain a standard for understanding how Mexican and Chicano activists interpreted their historical moment. More importantly, McCaughan explores how artists reinterpreted, challenged, and reflected on that moment for decades afterward.”  - Elaine Carey, Hispanic American Historical Review

“. . . [A] broad and politically sensitive addition to the English-language literature on three contemporaneous social movements whose demands and achievements continue to reverberate in the contemporary art worlds of Mexico City, Oaxaca, and California.” - Christopher Michael Fraga, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

“Overall, McCaughan’s book is an excellent resource for scholars interested in the cultural dynamics of social movements or who have an interest in the Chicano movements of the late 1960s. As text, the book would be useful in undergraduate and graduate courses addressing art and social movements.” - Katherine Everhart, Mobilization

“Based on extensive research and informed by the perspective of a witness to and participant in the political activism of the 1960s and 1970s, Art and Social Movements carefully attends to the cultural and artistic dimensions of recent social movement history and experience.” - Bruce Campbell, Journal of Latin American Studies

This book offers a detailed and fascinating exploration of the work of a generation of Mexican artists during the decades that followed the 1968 student revolution. . . . The real strength of the book is that the author, as a sociologist, is always keen to place art and artistic practice in a wider context.” - Annette Jorgensen, Visual Studies

“Masterful. . . . The value of a transdisciplinary lens surfaces in the diverse bodies of knowl¬edge activist artists draw on ‘to produce a deeper knowledge of the social world’ they inhabit (165). Clear in McCaughan’s analysis is the ability of art¬ists to draw from the works of philosophers, writers, and historians to further promote movement efforts.”  - Daniel Sarabia, Social Forces