Mock funerals, effigy parading, smearing with eggs and tomatoes, pot-banging and Carnival street theatre, arson and ransacking: all these seemingly archaic forms of action have been regular features of modern European protest, from the 19th to the 21st century. In a wide chronological and geographical framework, this book analyses the uses, meanings, functions and reactivations of folk imagery, behaviour and language in modern collective action. The authors examine the role of protest actors as diverse as peasants, liberal movements, nationalist and separatist parties, anarchists, workers, students, right-wing activists and the global justice movement. So-called traditional repertoires have long been described as residual and obsolete. This book challenges the conventional distinction between pre-industrial and post-1789 forms of collective action, which continues to operate as a powerful dichotomy in the understanding of protest, and casts new light on rituals and symbolic performances that, albeit poorly understood and deciphered, are integral to our protest repertoire.

Preface.- 1. Introduction: Looking Backward to Move Forward. Why appreciating tradition can improve our understanding of modern protest. Ilaria Favretto and Xabier Itcaina.- 2. "The Modernity of Tradition": Popular protest in 19th c. Germany. James Brophy.- 3. Charivari and the 1876 Italian elections. Enrico Baroncini.- 4. Peasant Resistance Traditions and the Irish War of Independence, 1918 21. John Borgonovo.- 5. A Fight for the Right to get Drunk: The Autumn Fair Riot in Eskilstuna, 1937. Stefan Nyzell.- 6. Italian anarchism and popular culture: History of a close relationship. Marco Manfredi.- 7. Persistent repertoires of contention in Portugal: From tax riots to anti communist violence (1840 1975). Diego Palacios Cerezales.- 8. Carnivalesque and charivari repertoires in 1960s and 1970s Italian Protest. Ilaria Favretto and Marco Fincardi.- 9. Popular Justice and Informal Politics: The Charivari in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century France. Xabier Itçaina.- 10. Tactical Carnival and the Global Justice Movement: The Clown Army and Clownfrontational Protest. Lawrence Bogad.- 11. Conclusion. Popular culture, folk traditions and protest: a research agenda. Xabier Itçaina.- 12. Afterword. Old and new repertories of contention. Donatella della Porta.