Boston Riots
Three Centuries of Social Violence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10046335 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul A Gilje (University of Oklahoma, corresponding author), Jack Tager |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 200 |
| Publication date | 2002-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2700803 |
| OpenAlex | W4299579492 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
As Jack Tager demonstrates, Boston has an interesting riot history. The colonial city erupted into collective violence often and for a variety of reasons, including attacks on customs regulations, the exportation of bread, celebrations of Pope Day, and impressment. During the nineteenth century the people of Boston continued to riot, especially over ethnicity and religion. In the twentieth century Boston gained infamy for the anarchy that accompanied the 1919 police strike and for the racial discord that marked the busing controversy in the 1970s. Tager recites the stories of these disturbances and many more, offering rich descriptions of “three centuries of social violence.” While this narrative provides an important resource for the study of riots, it left me with two questions. First, I wondered about Tager skipping over the most exciting and important moments of riot in Boston'history—the turbulent 1760s and 1770s when the city led the way in resistance to British imperial regulation and helped to bring on revolution. Claiming that prerevolutionary mobs sought “changes in the political structure,” Tager decided not write about them because he is only concerned with the “powerless, who are trying to find solutions . . . within the parameters of the existing system.” The crowds in the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, the riots against the Townshend duties, and the Stamp Act upheaval did not foresee the Declaration of Independence. They operated within the “system” as they understood it. Yet somehow they helped to create a revolution. By omitting these disturbances, Tager's history of Boston rioting is incomplete, and he may have missed the best part of the story
Colonialism · Criminology · Declaration of independence · Independence (probability theory · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |