Stories, Identities, and Political Change

the long version

Charles Tilly's newest book tackles fundamental questions about the nature of personal, political, and national identities and their linkage to big events-- revolutions, social movements, democratization, and other processes of political and social change. In this book, Tilly focuses on the role of stories as a means of creating personal identity and also as explanations-- true or false-- of political tensions and realities. He uses well-known examples from around the world-- the Zapatista rebellion, Hindu-Muslim conflicts, and other examples in which nationalism and other forms of group identity are politically pivotal.