The civil rights movement was the most important intellectual transformation since the Second World War; in terms of domestic influence, possibly the most important since the Civil War. Still, people often disagree about what it meant, and rarely measure its impact in the same way. I argue that the movement should be considered as an idea, which means accounting for how the movement became so widely available for use and reference by so many people. I describe not only a few of the ideas that contributed directly to the movement as popularly conceived, but especially those reactions to and interpretations of the civil rights movement by intellectuals, as a concept or term in their competing and complementary narratives of American history, the sum of which today comprises a quintessentially American style of political and cultural activity. The movement, considered as a powerful new idea, changed the nature of political practice and public discourse in the United States, but also fused with and incorporated existing conceptions concerning the nature of, and prospects for, American democracy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12012006-110902 |
| Date | 07 December 2006 |
| Creators | Kuryla, Peter Andrew |
| Contributors | Richard H. King, Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., Dennis C. Dickerson, Devin Fergus, Thomas Schwartz, Richard H. King, Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., Dennis C. Dickerson, Devin Fergus, Thomas Schwartz |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu//available/etd-12012006-110902/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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