A New Era of Political Mobilization: Who were the Yellow Vests in France?

When the Yellow Vest movement rushed through the streets of Paris in 2018 most analysts as well as the general public were mystified and not sure how to react. It was an extraordinary movement of hundreds of thousands of people throughout France and it was not clear whether it represented the left or the right or even whether such categories were still relevant. I followed this movement, joining the protests in the urban streets and then following participants back to the provinces, from its earliest stages and have continued to study it and its aftermath. The Yellow Vests were comprised of “o