Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt

"This is a book about why people so often put up with being the victims of their societies and why at other times they become very angry and try with passion and forcefulness to do something about their situation. For the most part, the book focuses on people at or near the bottom of the social order: those with little or no property, income, education, power, authority, or prestige. It tries to uncover how such people feel about and explain the circumstances of their lives. At the same time it searches for further reasons for their behavior. What are their notions of injustice and thereby of justice, and where do these ideas come from? Is there any central core of common or widely shared features in such conceptions, and if so, why? How and why have these conceptions varied among different groups of workers and what have been some of the most important historical trends that have affected them and can account for these variations?" -- Preface.