This study examines youth politics in Ethiopia before and during the 1974 Ethiopian revolution. By investigating urban social and cultural change among the youth to understand social protest and revolution in Ethiopia, it seeks to fill the lacuna in the Ethiopian revolution literature that emphasizes agrarian and political factors to identify the fundamental causes of the revolution. My study is an attempt to understand the process of social and cultural change among the youth in the broader arena of the urban space and its relationship with social protest and revolution. It also pays attention to the event of social protest to understand the formation of political identity and combine process and event in understanding the making of revolutionary politics among the youth. It does this through oral interviews with archival research—including study of cultural products (music, theatre and novels) and close study of newspaper archives.