Frontlash / Backlash

�Jeffrey Alexander, sociology’s leading theorist of �civil society� and of �culture� and �meaning,� in this work rejects assumptions that history is a story of inevitable human progress. Instead, he sees a recurrent alternation of �frontlash� and �backlash.� Impassioned and quite simply brilliant!� Michael Schudson, Columbia University �As democracy withers under rising authoritarianism, these essays bring sobering, indispensable news. The struggle for civic equality is not a continuous march toward progress. �Frontlash� and �backlash� movements expand, then shrink a society�s circle of civil solidarity. Jeffrey Alexander illuminates this ongoing drama of inclusion and exclusion with wit and passion.� Paul Lichterman, author of How Civic Action Works: Fighting for Housing in Los Angeles

Jeffrey C. Alexander is Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Yale University.