Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos Book 2, 2010-2021

Book excerpt: The stirring history of global student activism during the second decade of the 21st century--up to and including the Black Lives Matter movement and the extraordinary events of 2020. Student resistance in the second decade of the 21st century has increased in both quantity and quality, supercharged by social media, to the point where it has become the single most powerful force for change in the world today, embodying the hopes of hundreds of millions of citizens to finally address climate change, the condition of women and other major issues. Student resistance movements are the vanguard that can jumpstart wider social movements that put governments on notice at a time when corruption and stagnation plague democracies and authoritarian regimes alike. In Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 2, Mark Boren details the increasing technological sophistication of student movements, as the stakes continue to rise and the movements grow ever larger. With 1.5 billion students in the world, student activists today use technology to turn local movements into national and international ones. Armed with sophisticated communications and cell phone cameras to record police violence, linked to websites for broadcasting and encrypted apps for privacy, today's student activists have already done much to stop genocide and ensure government reform or regime change in scores of countries. Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 2, is being published simultaneously with Student Resistance in the Age of Chaos, Book 1, 1999-2009: Globalization, Human Rights, Religion, War, and the Age of the Internet. Together, the two volumes present a complete and unprecedented history of today's student activism phenomenon. As Mark Boren writes, "The explosion of protests in the world has shown us that there are millions of people--many of them young and altruistic--who are willing to stand up to forces of oppression, to risk their bodies, their freedom, and their lives to make the future better than the past, and that is humbling, inspiring, and hopeful for the future."