Recent events have profoundly changed our ways of understanding and studying contentious politics. With case studies that range from Germany to Guatemala, the authors take up topics as varied as the dynamic interactions between protesters and policing agents, distinctions between "hard" and "soft" repression, the impact of media on our understanding of political contention, the timing and shape of protest and resistance cycles, and how measurements of social and geographic control influence states' responses to insurgencies. Together these essays synthesize what we know about repression and mobilization and provide thoughtful insight for the future.