Description
Book SynopsisThe goal of Riots in the Cities, editors Silvia Marina Arrom and Servando Ortoll contend, is to encourage Latin Americanists to rethink standard notions of urban politics before the populist era. The actual political power wielded by the underprivileged city dwellers before the twentieth century has received little scholarly attention or has been downplayed. Researchers often described urban inhabitants as having little influence over both their lives and on the politics of their day. The elite were perceived as having firm control over the political process.
The seven essays in this reader analyze urban riots that broke out in major Latin American population centers between 1765 and 1910. Inspired by the works of Eric Hobsbawm and George Rud,, the authors find that the participants in these riots were far from irrational. The crowds responded to specific social provocation and attacked property rather than people. When taken together these essays challenge the notion that prior to
Trade Review
Kudos to Arrom and Ortoll for restoring riots, street celebrations, and other...forms of popular politics and consciousness to the Latin Americanist's research agenda. The seven essays...are all empirically rich and informed by recent trends in social theory. Arrom’s conceptual introduction and Charles Tilly’s concluding reflections are worth the price of admission alone. -- Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Popular Politics in Latin America before the Populist Era Chapter 2 Popular Politics in Mexico City: The Pari·n Riot, 1828 Chapter 3 'Death to the Cemetery': Funerary Reform and Rebellion in Salvador, Brazil, 1836 Chapter 4 The Vintem Riot and Political Culture: Rio de Janeiro, 1880 Chapter 5 The 1893 Bogotazo: Artisans and Public Violence in Late Nineteenth-Century Bogot· Chapter 6 '°Viva Mexico! °Mueran los yanquis!': The Guadalajara Riots of 1910 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Contention and the Urban Poor in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Latin America
