Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos. Book 1, 1999-2009

Book excerpt: The first all-encompassing history of today's global student activism movement. Student resistance in the first decade of the 21st century was the single most powerful liberating force around the globe during those years. Challenging governments--in a few cases, overturning governments--at a time when representational democracies appeared weak and authoritarian regimes were on the rise. In Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, Mark Boren goes continent by continent, country by country, to show us the contours of the new frontlines of resistance, the sacrifices that were made, the seismic changes caused by the Internet, and the new powers of surveillance and military technology that governments across the globe used to monitor and suppress student groups, raising the stakes and the human cost of resistance in many countries. Mark Boren's previous book on the subject, Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject (Routledge), charted the history from medieval times through the modern period, stopping in 1999. Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, takes us forward into the eventful first decade of the new century, and is being published simultaneously with Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 2, 2010-2020: Social Media, Women's Rights, and the Rise of Activism in a Time of Nationalism, Mass Migrations, and Climate Change. As Mark Boren writes in the book, "Student resistance throws into relief the relationships within our societies between the rulers and the people. It defines cultural moments and indicates the directions in which nations are heading. And if student activism has a rich and storied past, it is just as true that student movements are shaping the world more than they ever have before."