It’s easy to forget now, but during the Bush years, the antiwar movement was a genuine political force. Bigger than the Tea Party and Occupy movements, both in numbers and longevity, the movement also engaged in lobbying, spurred on the creation of legislative caucuses, and was an influential electoral bloc, all while having deep inroads to a major party. Yet just as that party took power and was suddenly best poised to enact the movement’s agenda, it withered away. Why?

Two scholars, Fabio Rojas and Michael Heaney, set out to find the answer to that question. The pair interviewed thousands of antiwar protesters between 2004 and 2010, adding up to what they say is the largest-ever survey of participants in a US social movement. Their findings were published in their book Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11. Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic recently spoke with Rojas about their research and what it all means for antiwar organizing in the age of Trump and beyond.