Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr. is Professor of Sociology at Mount Holyoke College, and author of Classical Social Theory: A Contemporary Approach, Anthony Giddens and Modern Social Theory, French Revolutionary Syndicalismand the Public Sphere, and (with Barbara Tucker) Industrializing Antebellum America.

"Tucker reconsiders the sociology of the public sphere by viewing it through the lens of performativity. Such a perspective highlights the ways that public spheres 'aestheticize' daily life and make possible new forms of subjectivity and collective life. What is especially impressive about this book is that Tucker develops his ideas at both an analytical and empirical level. The notions of the public sphere and civil society are today integral to debates about democracy and social change in both the academe and among activists. Tucker offers an original statement that is both compelling and important." -Steven Seidman, SUNY Albany

• Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Theoretical Reflections 1. Public Life, Aesthetics, and Social Theory 2. Social Movements and Aesthetic Politics 3. Identity, Knowledge, Solidarity, and Aesthetic Politics Part II. History and Social Movements 4. The World Is a Stage and Life Is a Carnival: The Rise of the Aesthetic Sphere and Pop u lar Culture 5. Labor and Aesthetic Politics: French Revolutionary Syndicalism, the IWW, and Fascism 6. The Flowering of Aesthetic Politics: May 1968, the New Social Movements, and the Global Justice Movement Conclusion Notes Index