War and Social Movements
Title
War and Social Movements
Author
Tarrow, Sidney
Research Area
Class, Status and Power
Topic
Violence, Conflict and Conflict Resolution
Abstract
In his scientific production, Charles Tilly broke new ground in two major areas: the study of war and state‐building and the study of contentious politics and social movements. Many scholars followed him and elaborated on each of these strands, but few—including Tilly—attempted to link them together. Both in the historical war and state‐building and in recent “new wars,” social movements—and contentious politics in general—play a vigorous but a poorly understood role. Drawing on Tilly's insights, this essay sets out five general hypotheses relating contention to war making and illustrates them with evidence from three historical episodes from French, American, and Italian history, and from the recent experience of the “global war on terror.”