Publications

2008
Skocpol T. “Bringing the State Back In: Retrospect and Prospect”. Scandinavian Political Studies. 2008;31 (2) :109-24.
Skocpol T, Mettler S. “Back to School”. Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. 2008;(10).
2007
Skocpol T, Pierson P. The Transformation of American Politics: Activist Government and the Rise of Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2007.
2006
What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality
Skocpol T, Liazos A, Ganz M. What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2006. Publisher's VersionAbstract
From the nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, millions of American men and women participated in fraternal associations--self-selecting brotherhoods and sisterhoods that provided aid to members, enacted group rituals, and engaged in community service. Even more than whites did, African Americans embraced this type of association; indeed, fraternal lodges rivaled churches as centers of black community life in cities, towns, and rural areas alike. Using an unprecedented variety of secondary and primary sources--including old documents, pictures, and ribbon-badges found in eBay auctions--this book tells the story of the most visible African American fraternal associations. The authors demonstrate how African American fraternal groups played key roles in the struggle for civil rights and racial integration. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, white legislatures passed laws to outlaw the use of important fraternal names and symbols by blacks. But blacks successfully fought back. Employing lawyers who in some cases went on to work for the NAACP, black fraternalists took their cases all the way to the Supreme Court, which eventually ruled in their favor. At the height of the modern Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, they marched on Washington and supported the lawsuits through lobbying and demonstrations that finally led to legal equality. This unique book reveals a little-known chapter in the story of civic democracy and racial equality in America.
2005
Skocpol T, Jacobs LR. Inequality and American Democracy: What We Know and What We Need to Learn. New York: Russell Sage Foundation; 2005.
Skocpol T, Keenan P. “Cross Pressures: The Contemporary Politics of Health Reform”. In: Mechanic D, et al Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press ; 2005.
Skocpol T, Cobb R, Klofstad C. “Disconnection and Reorganization: The Transformation of Civic Life in Late 20th Century America”. In: Studies in American Political Development 19. ; 2005. pp. 137-56.
2004
Skocpol T. “Voice and Inequality: The Transformation of American Civic Democracy”. Perspectives on Politics. 2004;2 (1) :3-20.
Skocpol T. “Civic Transformation and Inequality in the Contemporary United States”. In: Neckerman K Social Inequality. New York: Russell Sage Foundation ; 2004. pp. 731-69.
Skocpol T, Oser JL. “Organization Despite Adversity: The Origins and Development of African American Fraternal Organizations”. Social Science History. 2004;28 (3) :367-437.
Skocpol T. "A Bad Senior Moment". The American Prospect. 2004.
Skocpol T. “The Narrowing of Civic Life.”. The American Prospect. 2004.
Skocpol T. American Democracy in an Age of Rising Inequality. Washington D.C.; 2004.
2003
Skocpol T. “Social Provision and Civic Community: Beyond Fragmentation”. In: Rieder J The Fractious Nation? Unity and Division in Contemporary American Life. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press ; 2003. pp. 187-205. Publisher's Version
Skocpol T. “Will September 11 Revitalize Civic Democracy?”. In: Dionne EJ, Meltzer K, Litan RE United We Serve: National Service and the Future of Citizenship. Washington D.C. Brookings Institution Press ; 2003. pp. 20-32.
Skocpol T. “Doubly Engaged Social Science: The Promise of Comparative Historical Analysis” . In: Mahoney J, Rueschemeyer D Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press ; 2003. pp. 407-28.
Skocpol T. “Where are the Volunteers?”. Boston Globe. 2003.
Skocpol T, Campbell AL. “Down Goes Their Clout”. Newsday. 2003.
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life
Skocpol T. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press; 2003. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Pundits and social observers have voiced alarm each year as fewer Americans involve themselves in voluntary groups that meet regularly. Thousands of nonprofit groups have been launched in recent times, but most are run by professionals who lobby Congress or deliver social services to clients. What will happen to U.S. democracy if participatory groups and social movements wither, while civic involvement becomes one more occupation rather than every citizen's right and duty? In Diminished Democracy, Theda Skocpol shows that this decline in public involvement has not always been the case in this country-and how, by understanding the causes of this change, we might reverse it.
2002
Skocpol T, Munson Z, Karch A, Camp B. “Patriotic Partnerships: Why Great Wars Nourished American Civic Voluntarism”. In: Katznelson I Shaped by War and Trade: International Influences on American Political Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press ; 2002. pp. 134-80.

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