The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction: Towards a Global History of Social Movements

   • Stefan Berger, Holger Nehring

   Pages 1-35

3. Conceptual, Methodological and Theoretical Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37

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   2. Studying Social Movements: Some Conceptual Challenges

      • Dieter Rucht

      Pages 39-62

   3. Subaltern Studies as a History of Social Movements in India

      • Rochona Majumdar

      Pages 63-91

   4. Transpacific Feminism: Writing Women’s Movement from a Transnational Perspective

      • Seonjoo Park

      Pages 93-111

4. Continental Perspectives on the History of Social Movements

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113

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   2. Social Movements in Latin America: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

      • Claudia Wasserman

      Pages 115-143

   3. Dissident Political History: Social Movements in North America

      • Felicia Kornbluh

      Pages 145-174

   4. European Social Protest, 1000–2000

      • Marcel van der Linden

      Pages 175-209

   5. Social Movements in Africa

      • Andreas Eckert

      Pages 211-224

   6. Popular Movements in the Middle East and North Africa

      • John Chalcraft

      Pages 225-263

   7. Social Movements in India, 1800 to the Present

      • Arvind Elangovan

      Pages 265-295

   8. Subjectivation and Social Movements in Post-Colonial Korea

      • Jung Han Kim, Jeong-Mi Park

      Pages 297-324

   9. The History of Social Movements in Australia

      • Sean Scalmer

      Pages 325-352

5. Social Movements in Transnational Historical Perspective

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 353-353

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   2. From Cultural Wars to the Crisis of Humanity: Moral Movements in the Modern Age

      • Alexandra Przyrembel

      Pages 355-383

   3. Labour Movements in Global Historical Perspective: Conceptual Eurocentrism and Its Problems

      • Stefan Berger

      Pages 385-418

   4. Myths, Big Myths and Global Environmentalism

      • Frank Uekötter

      Pages 419-447

   5. Equality, Difference and Participation: The Women’s Movements in Global Perspective

      • Ilse Lenz

      Pages 449-483

Social movements have shaped and are shaping modern societies around the globe; this is evident when we look at examples such as the Arab Spring, Spain’s Indignados and the wider Occupy movement. In this volume, experts analyse the ‘classic’ and new social movements from a uniquely global perspective and offer insights in current theoretical discussions on social mobilisation. Chapters are devoted both to the study of continental developments of social movements going back to the nineteenth century and ranging to the present day, and to an emphasis on the transnational dimension of these movements. Interdisciplinary and truly international, this book is an essential text on social movements for historians, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers and social scientists.

• Social Movements
• Social History
• Labour Movement
• Facism
• Social Science
• Transnationality
• Peace Movements
• Subaltern studies
• New Social Movements

“Kevin Passmore and Fabian Virchow’s contributions on fascist and post-fascist movements, respectively, are a welcome addition to a field often concerned solely with progressive and left-leaning activism. … The incredibly complex array of ideas interrogated within this volume works as a provocation, particularly to Western scholars, to think beyond Western assumptions developed over many decades of social movement research, and look behind the ideas … .” (Kyle Harvey, H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, September, 2018)

• Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

  Stefan Berger

• University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom

  Holger Nehring

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, as well as Executive Chair of the Foundation History of the Ruhr. His research and publications focus on the history of social movements, nationalism and national identity, historiography and British and German modern and contemporary history.


Holger Nehring is both Professor of Contemporary European History and Head of the Division of History and Politics at the University of Stirling, UK. His research and publications focus on the history of peace and violence, the history of social movements and activism, and Cold War history.  

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