Book Review

Sidney Tarrow’s latest book on social movements addresses three main questions about the effects of recent changes in transnational activism. First, how do changes in transnational activism affect the central actors involved in contentious politics and the strategies they choose? Second, how do changes in transnational activism affect the political arena, both nationally and internationally? And third, what are the impli-cations for national autonomy? Tarrow addresses each of these questions with a mix of attention to the political processes at the core of these changing relationships and wide-ranging examples from the world of transnational activism, including the “battle of Seattle, ” kidnappings in Iraq, pork farming in Poland, human rights in Latin America, the struggle for gender equality in Western Europe, and suicide bombings, to name a few. A great strength of this book is that it does not shy away from the daunting complexity of these issues. The result is a complex and exciting work, but one that raises at least as many questions as it answers. Tarrow most forcefully answers the third question, making a clear case that in spite of growing internationalism and increasing globalization, contentious politic