Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism by Tamar W. Carroll (review)

In her first book, Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism, historian Tamar Carroll draws upon organizational case studies to illuminate activists' efforts to empower marginalized New Yorkers as they claim their place in New York's social democracy (7). The groups that she focuses upon, Mobilization for Youth (MFY), the National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW), and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Women's Health Action Mobilization (WHAM!) take readers from the 1960s Lower East Side of Manhattan into 1970s Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and back into Manhattan as the AIDS crisis erupted in the 1980s. According to Mobilization for Youth's Marilyn Bibb Gore, "One of the greatest things that MFY did was help people learn to fight" (50). Her statement invites the critical question of what made it possible for everyday New Yorkers to take their place in social movements that shaped their city and beyond. Through these case studies, Carroll emphasizes New York's diverse activist history as the voices of African American, Puerto Rican, white ethnic, and gay and lesbian activists are highlighted throughout the book. As Carroll explores the tensions that exist within these communities, she emphasizes that the ability to embrace difference and conflict are at the heart of participatory democracy (20).

Carroll connects the histories she explores to the shifting political terrain of New York and the broader country as citizens demanded inclusion, accountability, and resources from their government and experienced backlashes to their efforts. Her study of direct action and community organizing across the groups articulates the issues and experiences of community members and activists on the ground. She is adept at using local histories to provide new insights for readers familiar with New York and social movements, while offering enough context for those less familiar with the period or city's rich history. Carroll presents the outsize role the city has played in the United States as it is held up both symbolically and politically as representative of the nation and simultaneously considered to be peripheral with its dynamic mix of social groups, wealth, and poverty (5).

Readers may be drawn to the book as the 2016 presidential campaign echoed its key themes, including references to "New York values," ACT UP protests of Donald Trump, identity-based attacks, and struggles in both parties over accountability to grassroots voters. All three organizations studied faced challenges as their work became increasingly politicized in their practice and opposition during their existence. Mobilization for Youth was accused of being a hotbed of communist activism, and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women received this challenge through lesbian-baiting and race-baiting. Meanwhile, ACT UP and WHAM! went toe-to-toe with the stridently anti-gay and anti-abortion Roman Catholic leadership in New York City. As the current political moment involves struggles over transgender rights, racial justice, and increasing restrictions on abortion access, Mobilizing New York offers readers a contextual history of how activists sought to confront injustice despite these barriers.

Carroll's argument is that identity-based activism can be a source of power for social justice movements. Rather than the common assumption that identity is divisive, she makes a compelling case for its efficacy. Carroll demonstrates that activists' deepening investment in identity politics was both intersectional and based in shared needs and/or politics. Thus identity politics provided a strong foundation to their social justice work rather than inhibiting it. Her over fifty interviews, in addition to her use of more than 150 existing oral histories and interviews, give a broad sense of activists' motivations and reflections upon their efforts (21). Petersen of Mobilization for Youth and then the National Congress of Neighborhood Women, reflects this sense as she recounts that during Mobilization for Youth's heyday, "You did it together. I mean we were working together … you felt you were actually really part of something, and that you...