Edwin Amenta is an American sociologist best known for his study of social policy, social movements, and the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Through his political mediation theory, developed in conjunction with his research on the Townsend Plan and other Depression-era movements, Amenta has influenced how scholars conceptualize, study, and explain social movement impacts. Amenta's recent work analyzes the complete coverage in U.S. national newspapers of all movement and advocacy organizations across the twentieth century.