Sidney Tarrow (PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1965) is Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology at Cornell University. His recent books are Power in Movement (revised and updated edition, 2011); Contentious Politics (with the late Charles Tilly, 2006); The New Transnational Activism (Cambridge University Press, 2005); Transnational Protest and Global Activism (co-edited with Donatella della Porta, 2004); Dynamics of Contention (with Doug McAdam and Charles Tilly, 2001); and Contentious Europeans (with Doug Imig, 2001). He is currently working on war, state building and human rights.

• 1. Theories of contention; Part I. Movements in History: Histories of Movements: 2. Peasants and communists in southern Italy; 3. State building and contention in America; 4. Revolution, war, and state building in France; Part II. Movements, Parties, and Elections: 5. Movements, states, and opportunities; 6. The phantom at the opera; Part III. Events, Episodes, and Cycles: 7. From eventful history to cycles of contention; 8. From moments of madness to the repertoire of contention; Part IV. Outcomes of Contention: 9. Social protest and policy breakthroughs; 10. 'What's in a word?'; Part V. Transnational Contention: 11. Rooted cosmopolitans and transnational activists; 12. Transnational contention and human rights.

'… the book offers such a powerful theoretical synthesis that I have no doubt that within lies a treasure trove of opportunities for the next generation of scholars.' Lee Ann Banaszak, Mobilization