Sustaining Activism

"Sustaining Activism is a highly unusual book, full of rich insights and fun to read. Authored by a father and daughter, each with a distinct voice, it is a work of engaged ethnographic research that involved extraordinary collaboration both between the two authors and between the authors and a group of women activists in southern Brazil. In contrast with many social-movement scholars and activists, the authors acknowledge that social movements can be messy and contradictory. Their absorbing account is analytically and emotionally very powerful." - Marc Edelman, Hunter College and Graduate Program, CUNY "Sustaining Activism opens an intimate window onto the personal and political forces that propel grassroots women's activism in rural southern Brazil. Just as the women of Ibiraiaras and Sananduva invited Emma and Jeff into their kitchens and meeting halls, so the unique father-daughter dialogue that unfolds in this sophisticated yet highly accessible book lets us into those women's lives. This singular collaborative ethnography will be a treasured resource for students, scholars, and all those wishing to 're-enchant' politics." - Sonia E. Alvarez, Leonard J. Horwitz Professor of Latin American Politics and Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "This absorbing book - combining history, politics, sociology, memoir - is ultimately beyond category, much like the individual activists in Brazil whom it traces. Unique individuals can and do join forces to make a movement, as the authors have joined forces to make this book. Jeffrey W. Rubin and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin, each a distinct voice within a father-daughter team, exemplify the complex unities they write about so eloquently." - Mary Jo Salter, poet and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University "This slim book is free of academic jargon and instead exudes authenticity and positivity. The women's stories about their own histories and current circumstances are handled capably by the authors who acknowledge the interesting dynamics that play out as they interview women whose own fathers rarely let them leave the house or attend secondary school. High school and undergraduate students interested in Latin American politics and women's studies will especially find this intriguing and informative."--Jennifer Stout, Library Journal, February 25th 2013