This panel examines how national pasts have shaped the fabric of political life and of social protest during the crisis. The elements of national pasts that the authors emphasize include the nature of country-level transitions to democracy, the type of activist traditions characterizing the social movement field in national societies, the shape of the socio-political coalitions that have pushed national political trajectories in one direction or another and the contours of national experiences under authoritarian rule prior to the 1970s. To what extent do present-day social movements act as mnemonic agents regarding this past? The panel includes work by scholars in the fields of history, political science and sociology.