Charles Tilly was Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University. His work focused on large-scale social change and its relationship to contentious politics, especially in Europe since 1500. Some of his most recently published books are The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and Social Movements, 1768-2004 (Paradigm Press, 2004).

In 2005, Chuck published Trust and Rule (Cambridge University Press), Identities, Boundaries, and Social Ties (Paradigm Publishers), a revised paperback edition of Popular Contention in Great Britain (Paradigm Publishers), and co-edited with Maria Kousis Economic and Political Contention in Comparative Perspective (Paradigm Publishers), and is the 2006 triennium recipient of the Phi Beta Kappa Society Sidney Hook Memorial Award. In 2006, Charles Tilly received the Karl Deutsch Award for Comparative Politics from the International Political Science Association and the Sidney Hook Memorial Award from Phi Beta Kappa. During the same year, he published Why? (Princeton University Press), the Oxford Handbook of Contextual Analysis (Oxford University Press, co-edited with Robert Goodin), Contentious Politics (Paradigm Publishers, co-authored with Sidney Tarrow), and Regimes and Repertoires (University of Chicago Press). His Democracy (Cambridge University Press) appeared in 2007.

Shortly before his death in April of 2008, Tilly received the 2008 Hiirschman Prize from the Social Science Research Council.