HOW INSURGENCY BEGINS, rebel group formation in Uganda and beyond

277pp., maps, paperback, Cambridge, 2020

Winner of the 2021 Book of the Year Prize, Conflict Research Society.

"Not since Ted Gurr's Why Men Rebel has a book so powerfully grappled with the origins of insurgent violence. Lewis's brilliant examination of the role of secrecy and rumors in rebel group formation will have a lasting effect on how we think about civil conflict." Fotini Christia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"This is the book we have all been waiting for! Lewis's extraordinary research reveals the origins of rebel groups long before they emerge as viable, visible forces. Using micro-level data from Uganda, Lewis carefully analyzes where and when even the smallest groups form, why only a few of them survive, and how local intelligence determines whether they grow or perish. Nascent rebel groups all have the motive to rebel. But it's only the ones that control local information networks (and these are almost always concentrated ethnic groups) that endure." Barbara F. Walter, University of California, San Diego

Janet Lewis is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the George Washington University.