Histories of Portugal's transition to democracy have long focused on the
1974 military coup that toppled the authoritarian Estado Novo regime and
set in motion the divestment of the nation's colonial holdings. However,
the events of this "Carnation Revolution" were in many ways the
culmination of a much longer process of resistance and protest
originating in universities and other sectors of society. Combining
careful research in police, government, and student archives with
insights from social movement theory, The Revolution before the
Revolution broadens our understanding of Portuguese democratization by
tracing the societal convulsions that preceded it over the course of the
"long 1960s."