The Language of Contention

Sidney Tarrow is Maxwell M. Upson Professor Emeritus of Government at Cornell University and a visiting professor at Cornell University Law School. His recent books include a collection of essays, Strangers at the Gates: States and Social Movements in Contentious Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and a revised and expanded edition of Power in Movement (Cambridge University Press, 2011). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past president of the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. He is currently completing a book on states, wars and movements.

• Introduction; 1. Repertoires of contentious language; 2. Revolutions in words; 3. Words at work; 4. Race and rights talk; 5. Gender words; 6. Citizens and nations; 7. Love and hatred; 8. Conclusions.

'Classism, racism, sexism. Words, words, words? Revolutions, protests, riots - more words? That master of contentious politics, Sid Tarrow, examines how language constructs (empowers and unites) and deconstructs (disempowers and divides) actors. Using word counts and ethnography, his positivist constructivism connects words to actions as well as to historical structural contexts. Exploring cognitions, emotions, and meanings, Tarrow's rich analyses demonstrate how language endures through time and diffuses through populations via mechanisms of symbolic resonance and processes of strategic modularity.' Mark I. Lichbach, University of Maryland