Christine Kelly's Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue is what scholarship on the left ought to be and rarely is-irreverent toward intellectual fashions, courageous in facing the dark side of the times, and graced with humor and reasoned hope. Kelly's argument extends beyond her critique of the theory of New Social Movements: she brings American political culture into an engaging and searching dialogue with political theory.

Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University

Resource mobilization and opportunity structure theorists will have to go back to their drawing boards to make room for Christine Kelly's book-the most enlightening and refreshing work on social movements I have seen in many years. Ideas, ideologies, and institutions are back, and her middle-level theory promises more than the truistic and the circular. Tangled Up in Red, White, and Blue provides all the ingredients of a 'tragedy of social action.'

Theodore Lowi, Cornell University, former president of the Policy Studies Organization

Clearly and engagingly written, the book is recommended for undergraduate sociology and political science classes in social problems and movements and political sociology.

Choice Reviews

Christine Kelly offers a sophisticated review of the social movement literature, sharpened by her extensive knowledge and experience with student activism, and by her deep interest and commitment to critical theory and a normative politics. This is an original and illuminating study.

Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven