Tilly, Charles

Tilly, Charles, 1929–2008, American sociologist, b. Lombard, Ill. Educated at Harvard and Oxford, Tilly taught at the Univ. of Michigan, the New School for Social Research, and Columbia, among other institutions. He sought to synthesize history, sociology, and political science, and was particularly interested in the development of nation-states. His book The Contentious French (1986) painstakingly documents people confronting the power of the nation-state and modern capitalism and examines how the growth of social structures influenced their “repertoires of collective actions.” His numerous other books include From Mobilization to Revolution (1978), Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons (1985), European Revolutions, 1492–1992 (1993), Cities and the Rise of States in Europe, a.d. 1000 to 1800 (1994), Durable Inequality (1998), and Why? (2006).

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