Lively account of how people power has shaped British history -- from Peterloo to the Poll tax and beyond.

'A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.' Martin Luther King

Riot! covers, with a reporter's eye, almost 200 years of civil disturbance on mainland Britain, and gives a voice to some of the remarkable men and women involved. Ian Hernon shows that resistance played a part, not always beneficially, in the creation of proper parliamentary democracy, the welfare state, the trade union movement, the rights of immigrants and civil liberties. All of these, it can be argued, are under renewed attack today.

Hernon tells the story of a largely unacknowledged tradition of violent protest in Britain, from the martyrs of Peterloo to the drug-fuelled street violence of today. Riot! charts how the struggles of individual groups of workers turned into a broader campaign for electoral reform and justice; how excessive use of state force failed to extinguish the fires; how the trade unions pressed for wider social justice; how Thatcherism reversed decades of gradual reform and sparked social turmoil; and how a "good" riot played a part in her downfall. Finishing with an account of the anti-globalisation movement and G8 protests, this lively book shows how the ugly roar of a mob has perhaps done more to change society than measured parliamentary debate.

Foreword by Paul Routledge
Preface
Introduction
1. Luddites and Blanketeers
2. The Road to Peterloo
3. The Massacre
4. The Reckoning
5. Captain Swing and the Rural War
6. The Reform Riots and the Battle of Bristol
7. The Merthyr Rising
8. The Chartists and the Newport Insurrection
9. The Chartists and the Plug Plot Riots
10. Cunninghame Graham and Bloody Sunday
11. The Featherstone Riot
12. The Suffragettes and Black Friday
13. Churchill and the Troops
14. The Police Strike
15. Mosley and the Battle of Cable Street
16. The Notting Hill Riots
17. From Student Protest to Blair Peach
18. Brixton, Toxteth and Broadwater Farm
19. The Battle of Orgreave
20. The Poll Tax Riot
21. The Return of Race Riots
22. Stop the War and G8
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index