Resistance is universal, but why does it occur, and fail or succeed? Resistance is often regarded in traditional management books as a problem to be overcome because it is seen as short-sighted or self-interested. Grint suggests, however, that resistance is not necessarily right or wrong. From resistance to the Roman Empire, to slavery, to the Nazis, to racism, to the state and capital, to patriarchy, and to imperialism, this book ranges across time and place to explain the success or failure of resistance.

While many contemporary approaches focus on leadership as the explanatory variable, A Cartography of Resistance expands the approach to include management and command of resistance movements - and of their opponents. Many of the case studies explore the failures, as well as the successes, of resistance and the book suggests that even the failures reveal a fundamental truth about the human condition: just because the situation looks bleak for those suffering from oppression does not mean they surrendered meekly. Rather many seemed to adopt the same attitude that led Sisyphus to keep rolling the boulder up the hill: they were determined not to let their situation define or defeat them.