Frances Fox Piven, professor of sociology and political science at the City University of New York, gives a talk based on her forthcoming book, Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (Rowman Littlefield, 2006). After recounting the current ills of a society biased toward the powerful, Piven highlights the thread of populist resistance in American history from the American Revolution through abolition to the civil rights era. Pivens books include, with Richard Cloward, Poor Peoples Movements (Vintage, 1978) and Regulating the Poor (Vintage, 1993); Why Americans Still Dont Vote (Beacon, 2000); and The War at Home (New Press, 2004).

Piven speaks as part of the sociology departments Distinguished Visiting Scholars Series.