Boston Riots Three Centuries of Social Violence Paperback - 2000

From the publisher

FROM THE FOOD UPRISINGS in the early 1700s to the notorious antibusing 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 100 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