American Labor, Congress, and the Welfare State, 1935–2010

Bolton would surely be pleased to know that Havel’s ‘The Power of the Powerless’ has now been translated into Arabic and is now hopefully circulating the streets of Cairo and beyond. However, his work is also premised on the continued existence of the academic enterprise known as area studies, which has allowed for a rich and interdisciplinary crosspollination of scholarship focused on different regions. Funding once flowed easily for scholars examining a region pivotal for its geo-strategic importance during the Cold War: that is no longer the case. Bolton’s seminal work reaffirms the relevance of dissent and area studies, for only by understanding the historically specific and contingent texture of closed societies can we imagine challenges to authoritarian power and possibilities for change.