"Social movements have an elusive power but one that is altogether real. From the French and American revolutions to the post-Soviet, ethnic, and terrorist movements of today, contentious politics exercises a fleeting but powerful influence on politics, society, and international relations. This study surveys the modern history of the modern social movements in the West and their diffusion to the global South through war, colonialism, and diffusion, and it puts forward a theory to explain its cyclical surges and declines. It offers an interpretation of the power of movements that emphasizes effects on the lives of militants, policy reforms, political institutions, and cultural change. The book focuses on the rise and fall of social movements as part of contentious politics in general and as the outcome of changes in political opportunities and constraints, state strategy, the new media of communication, and transnational diffusion"--

Sidney Tarrow is the Emeritus Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government at Cornell University and Adjunct Professor at the Cornell Law School. Some of his recent publications include Strangers at the Gates (2012), The Language of Contention (2013), War, States, and Contention (2015), and Movements and Parties: Critical Connections in American Political Development (2021).

Part I. Origins, Theories and Contentious Action: 1. Where did movements come from?; 2. States, Capital, and Contention; 3. Acting contentiously; Part II. The Powers in Movement: 4. Organizations, coalitions, and hybrids; 5. Making meanings; 6. Regimes, opportunities, and threat; 7. Struggling to reform; Part III. Dynamics of Contention: 8. Cycles of contenton; 9. Movements in revolutionary cycles; 10. Movements, democracy, and undemocracy; 11. Transnational contention; Part IV. Conclusions: The future of contentious politics.