Collective Violence, Contentious Politics, and Social Change

Reviews / Votes

Charles Tilly was one of the great sociologists of the last fifty years. He was the most important analyst of social movements and contentious politics, but also shaped inquiry into cities, inequality, and the understanding of social processes. Social change today makes his work all the more important. Castaneda and Schneider clearly present the scope of Tilly's contributions and make his work accessible to a new generation of social scientists. -- Craig Calhoun, London School of Economics and Berggruen Institute

Over the course of several decades, Charles (Chuck) Tilly sent a great many ships (ideas/pieces of scholarship) into a great many seas. Some of us would follow a ship or three. Others would sit in the middle of an ocean or at a port to see what Chuck would send by. "Collective Violence, Contentious Politics and Social Change" serves as an amazing guide/companion/navigation device/travel log as one attempts to fathom all of the journeys taken by our dear friend. From revolutions to narratives, from theories to methods - it is all there. Like the guidebook to "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance," now we can revisit work that we thought we knew, visit works that we have heard about but never fully engaged with as well as see work that we didn't even know that Chuck was doing. -- Christian Davenport, University of Michigan

No scholar in the past half century has more deeply shaped historical and political sociology, and no volume more effectively brings together a better sampling of his prodigious opus. This collection not only demonstrates how Tilly has shaped the agenda in many of sociology's liveliest themes, but also captures his uncanny ability to seamlessly weave together theory, method, and substance. For the novice or the senior scholar, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand collective violence, contentious politics, and social change. -- William Roy, UCLA

Castaneda and Schneider have brought together some of Tilly's most influential and compelling pieces. By reading his analyses of cities, protest, wars, states, democracy and inequality - one sees the way that empirical research can be critical for understanding patterns in historical and contemporary contexts. In this moment of great change, Tilly offers us tools to understand the present and shape the future. This collection will satisfy both new readers and current followers of Tilly's work. -- Lesley J. Wood, York University

Charles Tilly shaped the thinking of several generations of scholars and activists. He was both prolific in his writing and generous in his engagement with the work of colleagues and students. He reached across disciplines, subfields and regions, diving deeply into empirical cases while working towards a more dynamic and relational conceptualization of political process. Precisely because his work is so far-reaching, it can be a challenge for emerging scholars to get a handle on the scope and evolution of his work. This collection by Ernesto Castaneda and Cathy Schneider provides the ideal entryway into Tilly's work. As Tilly would have hoped, it will help young scholars generate more questions, new research, and better explanations. -- Ann Mische, University of Notre Dame