This book is the first full-length study available in English to trace the extraordinary history of the Italian Northern Leagues during the 1980s and 1990s. At a time when the postwar First Republic entered a crisis amid corruption scandals, the Leagues acted as one of the main protest actors and grew at an unprecedented rate. Drawing on electoral and survey data, existing research, eyewitness accounts of protest events and interviews with activists and leaders, this book provides the definitive account of the movement.