In 2001, Doug McAdam, Sydney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly published Dynamics of Contention. In this jointly written volume, they aim to identify “similarities and differences, pathways and trajectories across a wide range of contentious politics – not only revolutions, but also strike waves, wars, social movements, ethnic mobilizations, democratization, and nationalism”. Thereby, they set out to develop the foundations for a general programme for the study of contentious episodes wherever and whenever they occur.

As Dynamics of Contention is an ambitious work in the field of historical sociology and social history, we have invited comments by Knut Kjeldstadli, Dilip Simeon, and Thomas Welskopp – scholars from different research traditions. Charles Tilly responds.