Chapter 1 introduces the main issues addressed in the book, presents its main argument, and describes the data and methods used in the analyses. More specifically, after a discussion of the thesis of the normalization of protest and protesters as well as a discussion of the featurs of protest in the age of globalization, we outline our micro-mobilization analysis of participation in street demonstrations, which forms the backbone of the book. The chapter also introduces the three main comparative dimensions used in the book, namely countries, types of demonstrations (economic/social), and types of demonstrators (novices/activists). Finally, it presents the plan of the book.