The United States was created by a revolution and American history is replete with examples of protest groups attempting to alter governmental policies and social and cultural patterns. One of the first things U.S. school children read about is the Boston Tea Party, where a group of colonial protestors, disguised as Native Americans, boarded British ships and destroyed valuable cargoes of tea to demonstrate their opposition to onerous British tax policies. But protest in America only became part of the popular culture during the 1960s, when television brought the strife and turmoil of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement into the living rooms of the American people. Since that turbulent era, sit-ins, marches, demonstrations, and boycotts have become common protest tactics practiced by various interest groups attempting to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The nineteenth century witnessed the birth of...