This is exemplary humanistic social scientific work, of the sort that all of us should be striving for. Bravo.
Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia -- Fiona Greenland Political players use all sorts of things in pursuing goals and spreading meanings, from totems of group identity such as flags to a protesters body intentionally set on fire. Such objects are as necessary to action as the people who carry them, and they are often the most colorful, creative, and memorable part. This volume shows why these objects matter so much. James M. Jasper, author of The Art of Moral Protest -- James M. Jasper In a world where American cities have stowed away Confederate statues, people in yellow vests shook a powerful French president, and Chinese protestors changed Covid policies by holding up blank sheets of paper, the creation, potency, and legacies of symbolic objects clearly matter enormously. The superb interdisciplinary scholars assembled in Benjamin Abrams and Peter Gardners Symbolic Objects in Contentious Politics shed invaluable light on these critical features of politics across the globe. Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania -- Rogers M. Smith "Benjamin Abrams and Peter Gardner have skillfully combined 15 contributions, examining a range of symbolic objects that feature in contentious politics, including social movements, civil wars and revolutions. . . It also gives us a broader understanding of how symbolism and narratives are negotiated across many different contexts that is novel and illuminating." -- International Affairs, Kathryn Starnes, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
