Kevin A. Young
Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Kevin
Young's research focuses on U.S. politics, social movements, and foreign policy, as well as Latin American history and politics. Key themes in Young's writings include the making of government policy and the ways that social movements can shape that process.
Contributions
In the News
"Georgia’s Voter Suppression Is Sparking Boycotts. History Shows They Can Work.," Kevin A. Young, News Analysis|Politics and Elections, Truthout, April 9, 2021.
"When Black Movements Win, Everybody But the 1 Percent Wins," Kevin A. Young, News Analysis|Economy and Labor, Truthout, December 24, 2020.
"No Co-Sponsor of 'Medicare for All' Has Lost Reelection in the Past Decade (Even in GOP-Leaning Districts)," Kevin A. Young (with ), Common Dreams,
"History Shows That Sustained, Disruptive Protests Work," Kevin A. Young, Opinion, Yes Magazine, July 8, 2020.
"Our Debt to Central American Refugees," Kevin A. Young, Democratic Socialists of America, September 9, 2019.
"Washington Intensifies Its Collective Punishment of Venezuelans," Kevin A. Young, Nacla, August 14, 2019.
"Will Climate Change Make Family Separations the Norm?," Kevin A. Young, Environment and Health, Truthout, August 25, 2018.
"War by Other Means in El Salvador," Kevin A. Young, North American Congress on Latin America, March 16, 2016.
"Hillary Clinton and Corporate Feminism: ‘Something That Might Be Called Neocon'," Kevin A. Young (with ), Against the Current, March - April 2015.
"Washing U.S. Hands of the Dirty Wars: News Coverage Erases Washington’s Role in State Terror," Kevin A. Young, ZNet, June 28, 2013.
"The Real Enemy in the Middle East: Why U.S. Leaders Fear Arab Democracy," Kevin A. Young, Z Magazine, September 2012.
"The Propaganda of False Trade-Offs: Pitting the Public against Social Spending, Good Wages, and Environmental Protection," Kevin A. Young, NYTimes Examiner, March 27, 2012.
"Contempt for International Law: A Survey of New York Times and Washington Post Editorials on Iran," Kevin A. Young, NYTimes Examiner, March 16, 2012.
"167 Million People Support Occupy Wall Street: The Time Is Ripe for a Mass Movement," Kevin A. Young, ZNet, October 15, 2011.
"Deficit Myths: The Six Most Prevalent Lies about Budget Deficits and Economic Recovery," Kevin A. Young, ZNet, July 25, 2011.
"Two, Three, Many Colombias: The Logic and Consequences of the U.S. Vision for Latin America," Kevin A. Young, Foreign Policy in Focus, December 29, 2010.
Publications
Levers of Power: How the 1% Rules and What the 99% Can Do About It (with ) (Verso, 2020).
Highlights the "capital strike" as a key mechanism for corporate influence over politics and argues that social movements are most effective when they directly target capitalists.
Making the Revolution: Histories of the Latin American Left (Cambridge Press, 2019).
Shows that the Latin American Left has often built powerful coalitions across divides of race, ethnicity, gender, and geography, challenging conventional views of the Left as class-reductionist, authoritarian, and militaristic.
Blood of the Earth: Resource Nationalism, Revolution, and Empire in Bolivia (University of Texas Press, 2017).
Traces how resource nationalism has pitted ordinary Bolivians against conservative Bolivians against conservative Bolivian leaders, US officials, and foreign investors
"Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: How Corporate Power Shaped the Affordable Care Act" (with ). New Labor Forum 23, no. 2 (2014): 30-40.
Documents the process by which the healthcare industry successfully shaped “Obamacare” in accordance with its interests and proposes a strategy by which labor and community activists might force corporations outside the health insurance sector to support a single-payer healthcare model.
"How ‘Partnership’ Weakens Solidarity: Colombian GM Workers and the Limits of UAW Internationalism" (with ). WorkingUSA 17, no. 2 (2014): 239-260.
Examines a recent U.S. solidarity movement with disabled General Motors workers in Colombia, arguing that the United Auto Workers leadership’s behind-the-scenes opposition to the movement is one result of the union’s belief in “partnership” with the company. The strategic lesson is that activists should take into account labor leaders’ bargaining relationships when trying to win union support for a cause.
"A Neglected Mechanism of Social Movement Political Influence: The Role of Anticorporate and Anti-Institutional Protest in Changing Government Policy" (with ). Mobilization 19, no. 3 (2014): 239-260.
Argues that progressive social movements are more effective at influencing government policy when they target corporations and government institutions—the primary architects of policy—rather than just elected politicians.
"The Good, the Bad, and the Benevolent Interventionist: U.S. Press and Intellectual Distortions of the Latin American Left" in Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Steve Ellner (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 249-269.
Challenges the widespread depiction of recent left-of-center Latin American governments as comprising a “good left” and “bad left,” arguing that the two alleged camps are in fact united on many fronts and that the so-called bad left countries actually outrank most others in respect for human rights and democracy.
"Purging the Forces of Darkness: The United States, Monetary Stabilization, and the Containment of the Bolivian Revolution" Diplomatic History 37, no. 3 (2013): 509-537.
Examines the economic means by which the Eisenhower administration attempted to neutralize the threat of the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, focusing on a 1956 U.S.-designed austerity plan that prefigured later neoliberal policies.
"Can Prefigurative Politics Prevail? The Implications for Movement Strategy in John Holloway’s Crack Capitalism" (with ). Journal of Classical Sociology 12, no. 2 (2012): 220-239.
Argues that social movements’ practice of prefigurative politics should be accompanied by organization-building, selective engagement of the state, and confrontational action to undermine existing elite institutions.