Todd Gitlin – författare

Occupy Wall Street is somewhere between a moment and a movement. Moment or movement, it's the fastest growing phenomenon on the left in decades. In three weeks, Occupy traversed a distance that took three years during the movement against the Vietnam war - from incredulity to trivialization to respect and popularity. It has changed the national debate with its We are the 99 percent slogan, which garnered near instant support throughout the country. In the course of a few weeks of human events, Occupy whipped up an incandescent compound of joy, anger, hope, and resolve - and most importantly, the promise of truly changing the political map. Yet despite its widespread appeal, Occupy Wallstreet has been poorly understood - on both the left and the right - by journalists, pundits, politicians, and everyday Americans alike. With "Occupy Nation", Todd Gitlin explores the origins, the spirit, the uniqueness and predecessors, the inner tensions, and the outlooks of the OWS movement.Providing both a unique interpretation of where the movement has come from while teasing out the significant role it's likely to play in political culture over the coming years, "Occupy Nation" is the book for anyone looking to understand the revolution playing out before their eyes.

"The tragedy of the left is that, having achieved an unprecedented victory in helping stop an appalling war, it then proceeded to commit suicide." So writes Todd Gitlin about the aftermath of the Vietnam War in this collection of writings that calls upon intellectuals on the left to once again engage American public life and resist the trappings of knee-jerk negativism, intellectual fads, and political orthodoxy. Gitlin argues for a renewed sense of patriotism based on the ideals of sacrifice, tough-minded criticism, and a willingness to look anew at the global role of the United States in the aftermath of 9/11. Merely criticizing and resisting the Bush administration will not do-the left must also imagine and propose an America reformed. Where then can the left turn? Gitlin celebrates the work of three prominent postwar intellectuals: David Riesman, C. Wright Mills, and Irving Howe. Their ambitious, assertive, and clearly written works serve as models for an intellectual engagement that forcefully addresses social issues and remains affirmative and comprehensive.Sharing many of the qualities of these thinkers' works, Todd Gitlin's blunt, frank analysis of the current state of the left and his willingness to challenge orthodoxies pave the way for a revival in leftist thought and a new liberal patriotism.

Prime time: those precious few hours every night when the three major television networks garner millions of dollars while tens of millions of Americans tune in. Inside Prime Time is a classic study of the workings of the Hollywood television industry, newly available with an updated introduction. Inside Prime Time takes us behind the scenes to reveal how prime-time shows get on the air, stay on the air, and are shaped by the political and cultural climate of their times. It provides an ethnography of the world of American commercial television, an analysis of that world's unwritten rules, and the most extensive study of the industry ever made.

"Be original. See what happens." So Todd Gitlin advises the young mind burning to take action to right the wrongs of the world but also looking for bearings, understanding, direction, and practical examples. In Letters to a Young Activist , Gitlin looks back at his eventful life, recalling his experience as president of the formidable Students for a Democratic Society in the'60s, contemplating the spirit of activism, and arriving at some principles of action to guide the passion and energy of those wishing to do good. Through a series of letters, he imparts to a new generation of radicals and activists the passion he felt as an angry young man and the wisdom he has attained as a mature political writer, teacher, and father. Gitlin considers the three complementary motives of duty, love, and adventure, reflects on the changing nature of idealism, and shows how righteous action requires realistic as well as idealistic thinking. And he looks forward to an uncertain future that is nevertheless full of possibility, a future where patriotism and intelligent skepticism are not mutually exclusive. With compassion and hard-won insight, Gitlin invites the young activist to enter imaginatively into some of the dilemmas, moral and practical, of being a modern citizen- the dilemmas that affect not only the problems of what to think but also the problems of what to love and how to live.

With a New Introduction Unsurpassed since its first publication, "Inside Prime Time" is the only book to take us behind the scenes to reveal how prime-time shows get on the air, stay on the air, and are shaped by the political and cultural climate of their times. Using more than 200 interviews with network executives, producers, writers, agents, and actors, as well as months of on-set investigation during the networks' more prosperous years, sociologist and critic Todd Gitlin takes us into a frantic world searching for hit shows. The result is both a lucid picture of the mechanics of prime time and a series of vivid stories of what succeeded or failed, and why.His analysis includes a blow-by-blow account of how the exceptional police series "Hill Street Blues" succeeded against all odds before eventually succumbing to formula itself. No one else has analyzed, as Gitlin has, the inside track that links executives and producers, or the efforts of worried advertisers, hopeful writers, and the lobbyists of the fundamentalist right to shape America's waking hours.In a new introduction, Gitlin describes the elements of the new television order, and argues that the proliferation of cable channels and the decline of the old networks have not fundamentally changed the business mentality that guides decisions about the entertainment that will fill Americans' leisure time.

'The whole world is watching!' chanted the demonstrators in the Chicago streets in 1968, as the TV cameras beamed images of police cracking heads into homes everywhere. In this classic book, originally published in 1980, acclaimed media critic Todd Gitlin first scrutinizes major news coverage in the early days of the antiwar movement. Drawing on his own experiences (he was president of the Students for a Democratic Society in 1963-64) and on interviews with key activists and news reporters, he shows in detail how the media first ignore new political developments, then select and emphasize aspects of the story that treat movements as oddities. He then demonstrates how the media glare made leaders into celebrities and estranged them from their movement base; how it inflated the importance of revolutionary rhetoric, destabilizing the movement, then promoted 'moderate' alternatives - all the while spreading the antiwar message. Finally, Gitlin draws together a theory of news coverage as a form of anti-democratic social management - which he sees at work also in media treatment of the anti-nuclear and other later movements.Updated for 2003 with a new preface, "The Whole World Is Watching" is a subtle and sensitive book, true to the passions and ironic reversals of its subject, and filled with provocative insights that apply to the media's relationship with all activist movements.

Prime time: those precious few hours every night when the three major television networks garner millions of dollars while tens of millions of Americans tune in. Inside Prime Time is a classic study of the workings of the Hollywood television industry, newly available with an updated introduction. Inside Prime Time takes us behind the scenes to reveal how prime-time shows get on the air, stay on the air, and are shaped by the political and cultural climate of their times. It provides an ethnography of the world of American commercial television, an analysis of that world's unwritten rules, and the most extensive study of the industry ever made.