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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 1, 1999 - 2009

Globalization, Human Rights, Religion, War, and the Age of the Internet

by Mark Edelman Boren

Book cover for Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 1, 1999 - 2009
Book cover for Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 1, 1999 - 2009

The first all-encompassing history of today's global student activism movement.

As Mark Boren writes in the book, "Student resistance throws into relief the relationships within our societies between the rulers and the people. It defines cultural moments and indicates the directions in which nations are heading. And if student activism has a rich and storied past, it is just as true that student movements are shaping the world more than they ever have before."

Student resistance in the first decade of the 21st century was the single most powerful liberating force around the globe during those years. Challenging governments—in a few cases, overturning governments—at a time when representational democracies appeared weak and authoritarian regimes were on the rise. In Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, Mark Boren goes continent by continent, country by country, to show us the contours of the new frontlines of resistance, the sacrifices that were made, the seismic changes caused by the Internet, and the new powers of surveillance and military technology that governments across the globe used to monitor and suppress student groups, raising the stakes and the human cost of resistance in many countries.

Mark Boren's previous book on the subject, Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject (Routledge), charted the history from medieval times through the modern period, stopping in 1999. Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, takes us forward into the eventful first decade of the new century, and is being published simultaneously with Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 2, 2010-2020: Social Media, Women's Rights, and the Rise of Activism in a Time of Nationalism, Mass Migrations, and Climate Change.

Book cover for Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 1, 1999 - 2009
Book cover for Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 1, 1999 - 2009

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“Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos is a dangerous book for authoritarian and dictatorial leaders. This book can only inspire and guide a next generation of pro-democracy activists. This history-rich book, that tells unique stories and explains creative tactics of social movements, is an antidote to rising authoritarianism and populism in politics across the globe. An immensely important book in these times of political crisis!”

“Comprehensive and powerful, Mark Boren’s Student Resistance endows the reader with a sense of agency, and hope.”

“An incomparable tour de force.”

“Student protests date back to the Middle Ages. In his 2001 offering, Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject, Boren explored approximately 500 years of student uprisings, considering the sixteenth through twentieth centuries. His new offering, a two-volume set, looks at more recent student-led civil insurrections, considering how new technologies (social media, mapping and tracking apps, Twitter, etc.) profoundly change and empower twenty-first-century student resistance movements. In Volume I, 1999-2010, Boren identifies globalization, human rights, religion, and war as major flashpoints, and offers accessible profiles of uprisings that took place in countries around the world. The second volume, 2010-now, segues to women's rights, mass migrations, climate change, increased nationalism, and the Black Lives Matter movement, maintaining the international scope. Each volume sets up seven broad scenarios ("War, the Push for Liberalism, and Conservative Backlash in the Middle East"; "Nationalism, Antifa, and the Climate Change Movement in Europe") and provides ample social and political context, descriptions of regional student activism, and insightful commentary, supported by copious chapter notes and an extensive bibliography. A highly specialized resource, granted, but authoritative and exhaustive.”

“The breadth of the project is stunning. Boren presents a complex, even chaotic, world, in which young people have experienced significant and rapid changes in a variety of political and economic contexts. Some of these movements’ demands have had global or regional implications, such as those confronting war or climate change. Others, meanwhile, have targeted policies and issues specific to individual nations, cities or schools.”

blog — April 23

Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos: Two Free eBooks to Fight Back

In solidarity with the pro-Palestine student actions at Columbia University, NYU, University of California Berkeley, University of Minnesota, MIT, Harvard, Yale, and many other universities throughout the country, we are proud to offer free downloads of Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos by Mark Edelman Boren.

A sweeping, two-volume recent history of student protest, Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos not only highlights successful resistance students movements of the past 20+ years, but also examines the ways that new technologies further enable direct actions and other tactics for resistance to administrative and police repression.

As Mark Boren writes, "Student resistance throws into relief the relationships within our societies between the rulers and the people. It defines cultural moments and indicates the directions in which nations are heading. And if student activism has a rich and storied past, it is just as true that student movements are shaping the world more than they ever have before. ... The explosion of protests in the world has shown us that there are millions of people — many of them young and altruistic — who are willing to stand up to forces of oppression, to risk their bodies, their freedom, and their lives to make the future better than the past, and that is humbling, inspiring, and hopeful for the future."

Student resistance in the first decade of the 21st century was the single most powerful liberating force around the globe during those years. Challenging governments—in a few cases, overturning governments—at a time when representational democracies appeared weak and authoritarian regimes were on the rise. In Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, Mark Boren goes continent by continent, country by country, to show us the contours of the new frontlines of resistance, the sacrifices that were made, the seismic changes caused by the Internet, and the new powers of surveillance and military technology that governments across the globe used to monitor and suppress student groups, raising the stakes and the human cost of resistance in many countries.

Student resistance in the second decade of the 21st century has increased in both quantity and quality, supercharged by social media, to the point where it has become the single most powerful force for change in the world today, embodying the hopes of hundreds of millions of citizens to finally address climate change, the condition of women and other major issues. Student resistance movements are the vanguard that can jumpstart wider social movements that put governments on notice at a time when corruption and stagnation plague democracies and authoritarian regimes alike. In Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 2, Mark Boren details the increasing technological sophistication of student movements, as the stakes continue to rise and the movements grow ever larger. With 1.5 billion students in the world, student activists today use technology to turn local movements into national and international ones. Armed with sophisticated communications and cell phone cameras to record police violence, linked to websites for broadcasting and encrypted apps for privacy, today's student activists have already done much to stop genocide and ensure government reform or regime change in scores of countries. 

Mark Edelman Boren's books include Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject (Routledge, 2001) and Sugar Slavery, Christianity and the Making of Race (Caribbean Studies Press, 2015). His series Student Resistance Book 1 and 2 cover global student activism from 1999-2020. He is also a visual artist whose artwork has been exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Threadwaxing in New York. His passions include the fight for social justice, psychoanalysis, and romanticism. Currently Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, he has published on a wide array of writers, including Blake, Byron, Eliot, Faulkner, and Melville. He lives in the Wilmington, North Carolina area.