Focusing on cultural trauma, this volume compiles Ron Eyerman's key essays from 2004 to 2018, offering insights into the theory's origins and evolution. An original introduction presents a historical overview while contributing to the theoretical discourse on cultural trauma and collective identity. The Afterword by sociologist Eric Woods ties the essays together, highlighting their relevance to sociology, behavioral science, and trauma studies, making this collection a significant resource for understanding these complex themes.
The book delves into how the cultural trauma of slavery has shaped African American identity. Ron Eyerman examines the historical and social contexts that contribute to this identity formation, highlighting the lasting impact of slavery on contemporary African American culture and consciousness. Through a nuanced analysis, he addresses themes of memory, resilience, and the ongoing struggle for identity within the African American community.
An account of the emergence and development of white consciousness throughout American history.In The Making of White American Identity , Ron Eyerman provides an explanation for how whiteness has become a basis for collective identification and collective action in the United States. Drawing upon his previous work on the formation of African American identity, as well as cultural trauma theory, collective memory, and social movements, he reveals how and under what conditions such a collective identification emerges, as well as how the mobilization of collective action around an ideology of whiteness and white superiority. Eyerman explores how the American identity was, and is still being established, through both historical and more recent events, including the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, the election of a Black president, the Charlottesville confrontation, and the violent conflict at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He further shows how each event revitalized the trauma narratives stemming from the nation's founding tensions, mobilizing social forces around the idea ofwhite superiority and white consciousness. Tracing the historical contexts and social conditions under which individuals and groups move through this process, the author also looks forward at the prospects of the ideology of white supremacy as a political force in the United States.
Music and song are central to modern culture--social movements to cultural change. Building on their studies of the sixties culture and the theory of cognitive praxis, the authors examine the mobilization of cultural traditions and the formation of new collective identities through the music of activism. Specific chapters examine American folk and country music, black music, music of the sixties, and the transfer of the American experience to Europe. This highly readable book is among the first to link social movement and cultural theory.
