My paper will trace a progression of the movement from the initial incident in the town of Sidi Bou Zid to the massive demonstrations in Tunis that brought down the Ben Ali regime. It will outline the narrative arc of the movement, highlighting particular moments as critical turning points. Throughout, the paper will pose the question: how were these demonstrations organized and what particular features gave local protests their symbolic power and momentum? I consider the interplay between protester violence (scorched earth vandalism) and non-violent marches in response to state efforts at violent crackdown. What role did cultural forms, like hip hop and rap play in consciousness-raising among the youth? The paper will introduce the notion that there is a historically salient "geography of protest" that manifested itself in a previous popular uprising, the Revolt of 1864 and also in the 1881 anti-colonial resistance.I will briefly compare the two uprisings of 2011 and 1864, tracing how participants in 2011 referred to the revolutionary tradition of the previous revolt. The paper argues that in the case of the 2011 Revolution what made the difference was the participation of a cross section of Tunisian society, demonstrations in Tunis capital, and a network for disseminating information about what was happening that took the event out of the interior, especially as Bouazizi lay dying in a burn unit in the capital. The informational nexus included the triangulation of demonstrators on the ground with cell phone cameras, who then uploaded videos onto known opposition sites, like nawaat.org, whose contents served as news feeds for satellite networks, like al-Jazeera. This feedback loop kept the story of Sidi Bou Zid alive and (inter)nationalized the rebellion. Using video archives, bloggers’ posts, various local and international press articles, and syndicalist communiqués, I will analyze the demands of the protesters and ask why these demands effective? Finally, with a view toward the historical comparison, the paper will critically examine the epithet “Jasmine Revolution."