Boston riots : three centuries of social violence / Jack Tager ; picture researcher, Ruth Owen Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tager, Jack.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Riots--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Riots.

Violence--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Violence.

History.

Boston (Mass.)--History.

Boston (Mass.).

Boston (Mass.)--Social conditions.

Boston (Mass.)--Race relations.

Massachusetts--Boston.

Physical Description:

xi, 289 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Northeastern University Press, [2001]

Summary:

From the food uprisings in the early 1700s to the notorious anti-busing riots in the mid-1970s, incidents of communal social violence have played a significant role in Boston's history.

The remarkable story of Boston's violent past is now told for the first time in this thorough exploration of the more than one hundred riots that occurred in the city over a span of nearly three centuries. Drawing on exhaustive research in newspaper archives, Jack Tager revisits both well- and lesser-known episodes, including the grain, impressment, brothel, and Pope Day riots of the eighteenth century; the anti-Catholic, abolition, and draft riots of the nineteenth century; and the Kosher meat, police strike, ghetto, and busing riots of the twentieth century.

Tager identifies the protagonists, highlights their motives and demands, and seeks to determine whether they realized their goals. He also examines how victims suffered at the hands of their fellow citizens, shows how law enforcement responded to the riots, and considers the complex social interactions and tensions that contributed to the uprisings. He finds that most incidents of violent civil disorder were initiated by the powerless lower classes who believed rioting was the only avenue for giving voice to their grievances over political, cultural, religious, or economic oppression.

This vivid portrait of an ever-changing community over time provides a revealing glimpse into people's anger, aspirations, and frustrations. It sheds new light on why groups are provoked to take unlawful action in response to unjust conditions, and it opens a fresh vista on the social history of Boston.

Contents:

1 The Eighteenth-Century Setting 13

2 A Variety of Riots: Food, Customs, Antielite, and Pope Day Riots 25

3 The Impressment Riot of 1747 52

4 Antebellum Boston: Norm Enforcement, Race, and Abolition Riots 76

5 Anti-Catholic Rioting in Antebellum Boston: The Ursuline Convent and the Broad Street Riots 104

6 Anti-Catholic Tensions, 1850-1900, and the Draft Riot of 1863 125

7 The 1919 Police Strike Riots 143

8 Ghetto Riots, 1967-1968 171

9 Antibusing Riots, Fall 1974 188

10 Antibusing Riots, 1975-1976 209.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-277) and index.

ISBN:

1555534619

1555534600

OCLC:

44172952