‘If We Burn’: A book that examines why a decade of mass protest has done so little to change things

News Snapshot:

In 2010, in response to ongoing ill-treatment by police, a fruit vendor performed an act of self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. This set off an uprising that led to the removal of dictator Ben Ali and a process to rewrite the constitution in a democratic direction. Inspired by this, huge demonstrations against police brutality erupted in Egypt, centred in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the protesters calling for the removal of the country’s president, Hosni Mubarak. These events catalysed what Vincent Bevins calls the “mass protest decade”. The years from 2010 to 2020 saw a record number of protests around the world...