Good Trouble: How Deviants, Criminals, Heretics, and Outsiders Have Changed the World for the Better

(Hardback)

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Description

This book is written in praise of the criminal; a unique kind of criminal, who is motivated not by personal gain, but ethical altruism. Deviant heroes are those individuals who violate unjust norms and laws, facing the repercussions of social control, effecting positive social change in the process. Using a method that examines how the biographies of individual deviants intersected with history, it probes how criminals and deviants have been on the leading edge of important, positive social changes and the creation of a more just, fair, and humane society. Brian Wolf concludes with an examination of the problem of conformity and how deviant heroism in everyday life may be a remedy for injustice in micro-level social contexts.

Reviews

Good Trouble expands the field of deviance to recognize the power and often heroic nature of ethical altruism, disciplined nonconformity, and those who resist norms and break laws in the name of truth, justice, and equality. The book, using case studies, provides a social accounting of history that recognizes the great debt owed to our deviant heroes, those willing to break the rules, risk arrest and often their lives, in the name of progressive social change and resistance to oppression. Good Trouble is timely, relevant, and accessible to students of all ages and backgrounds. A must read for deviance scholars. -- Terressa A. Benz, Oakland University

Author Bio

Brian Wolf is associate professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Idaho.