Description
Book SynopsisThe Street Politics of Abortion uses three Supreme Court cases to consider the rise and fall of clinic-front anti-abortion protests in the 1980s and 1990s, and illustrates how these conflicts influenced the contemporary form of reproductive politics and the greater New Christian Right.
Trade Review"
The Street Politics of Abortion adds much to our understanding of dissent, abortion, politics, and the evolution of new Christian conservative leaders, institutions, and tactics." -- Laura R. Woliver *
Tulsa Law Review *
"[The events of the American anti-abortion movement] are the subject of Joshua C. Wilson's book,
The Street Politics of Abortion, and involve the intersection of four topics: political movements that involve litigation; anti-abortion activism; First Amendment doctrine and judicial decision making; and legal consciousnes, in particular the evolving view of law of various elite and non-elite actors. This combination makes for rich and fascinating subject of study and promises Wilson's book a wide audience . . . Wilson lets the various actors speak for themselves. As a result, the reader gets a good sense of the motivation and thinking of the activists on both sides." -- James Daniel Fisher *
The Law and Politics Book Review *
"Beautifully written and tremendously accessible,
The Street Politics of Abortion offers new insight into how lawyers—especially those assigned to cases rather than taking them as part of their political commitments—understand their role as trial lawyers and social movement actors. This excellent book is analytically important, methodologically innovative, and breaks new ground in the study of social movements, legal consciousness, and the first amendment." -- Laura Beth Nielsen * Northwestern University, American Bar Foundation, author of
License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech *
"On about as hot a subject as a scholar can take on, Joshua Wilson has sensitively and exhaustively shown how activists' 'stories' about the law shape the everyday politics of abortion. Blending political science and sociology, this is modern legal scholarship at its very best." -- Steven Teles * Johns Hopkins University, author of
The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement *
"Joshua Wilson shows how the interactions of protesters at abortion clinics and their legal defeats actually helped to institutionalize the anti-abortion movement. This important new work on abortion politics greatly advances our understanding of movement/countermovement dynamics and the power of law." -- Suzanne Staggenborg * University of Pittsburgh *
