Understanding the Tea Party Movement
The Mobilization Series on Social Movements, Protest, and Culture Series

Hailing themselves as heirs to the American Revolution, the Tea Party movement staged tax day protests in over 750 US cities in April 2009, quickly establishing a large and volatile social movement. Tea Partiers protested at town hall meetings about health care across the country in August, leading to a large national demonstration in Washington on September 12, 2009. The movement spurred the formation (or redefinition) of several national organizations and many more local groups, and emerged as a strong force within the Republican Party. Self-described Tea Party candidates won victories in the November 2010 elections. Even as activists demonstrated their strength and entered government, the future of the movement's influence, and even its ultimate goals, are very much in doubt. In 2012, Barack Obama, the movement?s prime target, decisively won re-election, Congressional Republicans were unable to govern, and the Republican Party publicly wrestled with how to manage the insurgency within. Although there is a long history of conservative movements in America, the library of social movement studies leans heavily to the left. The Tea Party movement, its sudden emergence and its uncertain fate, provides a challenge to mainstream American politics. It also challenges scholars of social movements to reconcile this new movement with existing knowledge about social movements in America. Understanding the Tea Party Movement addresses these challenges by explaining why and how the movement emerged when it did, how it relates to earlier eruptions of conservative populism, and by raising critical questions about the movement's ultimate fate.

Contents: Preface; Introduction, Nella Van Dyke and David S. Meyer; Part I Explaining the Timing and Pace of the Mobilization: Politics and Resources: What’s new about the Tea Party movement?, Rory McVeigh; Three-layer movements, resources, and the Tea Party, Tina Fetner and Brayden G. King; Social movement partyism and the Tea Party’s rapid mobilization, Paul Almeida and Nella Van Dyke; The Tea Party and the dilemmas of conservative populism, David S. Meyer and Amanda Pullum. Part II Who Mobilized and Why? Ideology, Identity, and Emotions in the Tea Party: The Tea Party moment, Abby Scher and Chip Berlet; From fervor to fear: ICT and emotions in the Tea Party movement, Deana A. Rohlinger and Jesse Klein; Who are ’we the people’? Multidimensional identity work in the Tea Party, Ruth Braunstein; Conclusion, Nella Van Dyke and David S. Meyer; Index.

Nella Van Dyke is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced, USA. She is the editor of Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements. David S. Meyer is Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Planning, Policy, and Design at the University of California, Irvine, USA. He is the author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America and editor of Routing the Opposition: Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy in America and Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State.