This course investigates the people who have mobilized to change the shape of their society, often at great personal risk. We will consider what has motivated these activists and what has sustained them through hard times and difficult odds. We will look at their successes as well as their mistakes made along the way. We will examine how the contours of society today are different as a result of their activism. The course traces the development of major movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, including labor, civil rights/Black Power, student, feminist, gay/queer activism, and environmental/human rights struggles by indigenous peoples. We will look at what set these movements into motion, structured their form, and affected what they have achieved. We will investigate the role of resources, strategy, culture and biography in protest.