Violent London: 2000 Years Of Riots, Rebels And Revolts

Description:
Almost as soon as it was built, London suffered the first of many acts of violent protest, when Boudica and her followers set fire to the city in AD 60. Ever since, the capital's streets have been a forum for popular insurrection. Covering nearly 2,000 years of protest -- from Wat Tyler to the G20 - this is the story of an alternative London, and an alternative history of the British Isles: outside parliamentary processes and in direct confrontation with the forces of the state. It is a story of political activism expressed in street fighting and slum warfare, in assassination and bombing, peopled by a fascinating array of demagogues, democrats, bigots and social revolutionaries. It is also the story of the growth of London as a capital and as a major city. This fully revised and comprehensive edition contains new chapters on the 7/7 attacks, the deaths of Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson, recent environmental, anti-capitalist and libertarian protest, and a discussion of the importance of current laws on terrorism, civil rights and the policing of protests.

Review:
Reviews of 1st edition (Pan): 'An exhilarating rush through countless riots, insurrections and full-blown street wars...written in a racy and accessible style...As I read this superb history, I looked out at my quiet suburban garden, disappointed not to hear the sound of trumpets.' - J. G Ballard, Daily Telegraph 'A breathless but exhilarating journey from Boudica to such recent events as the aftermath of September 11th and the march of the Countryside Alliance, Bloom's viewpoint is nicley balanced, critical of government and especially of the police, but not unreasonably so, and not too passionately keen that the rebels should win every time.' - Times Literary Supplement 'Seamless, full of information, connections and insights.' - Juliet Gardiner, BBC History Magazine

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Map Preface to Palgrave Edition Acknowledgements to Palgrave Edition A Desolation they called Peace: The Destruction of London in AD 60 'Offence - A Londoner': The Peasants' Revolt to Evil May Day 'We'll no need the Papists noo!': Criminalizing Catholics from the Babington Plot to Guy Fawkes Free-Born John: Levellers, Fifth Monarchy Men and the Peace Women Murderous Fantasies: The Great Fire to the Popish Plot George's War: From the Jacobites to the Gordon Riots The Ape-Like Irish: The Aftermath of the Gordon Riots, the Catholic Emancipation Act and the Garibaldi Riots 'Wilkes and Liberty': The Political Riot The United States of England: The English Jacobins to the Cato Street Conspirators Monster Rallies: The War with the Chartists, the 'Sally Army' and the Rebellious Schoolchildren of London Persecuting Pigeons: Trafalgar Square and Bloody Sunday 'Good Old Dynamite': London's War with the Bombers Women Behaving Badly: The Suffragettes Huns and Hashish: The Yellow Peril to the German Pogrom Comrades All: Red London to Red Ken Brave Boys of the BUF: The Origins of London Fascism Not Quite Kosher: The Jews of London, Jeffrey Hamm and the Return of Oswald Mosley Alien Nation: Indian Assassins and Black Radicals The Tiber Flowing with Much Blood: Enoch Powell, Notting Hill and Hackney Like Rorke's Drift: Hackney, Brick Lane and Lewisham Anarchy in the UK: Private Armies, Vigilantes and the New Cross Fire Living on the Front Line: Brixton to Broadwater Farm; the Stephen Lawrence Case to the Soho Bomber One, Two, Three, What Are We Fighting For?: Grosvenor Square to Moon at the Monarchy 2000 Back to the Future: Poll Tax Rebels and Tenant Strikers The Free Republic of Wanstonia: The Fight for London's Green Spaces Never Underestimate a Minority: Guerrilla Gardeners and the Countryside Alliance The Man in the Third Carriage - 7/7 and its Consequences Operation Glencoe -- G20, Ian Tomlinson and the Future of Street Protest Epilogue: Watching the River Flow: Surveillance and Terror Appendix One: Shadow of a Warrior Queen: Boudicca and the Destruction of London: Unanswered Questions Appendix Two: The Huguenot and Italian Legacy Appendix Three: Assassination Attempts on the Royal Family Notes Index

Author Biography:
CLIVE BLOOM is Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies at Middlesex University, UK. Widely published and Series Editor of Palgrave Macmillan's Crime Files series, he is the author of Literature, Politics and Intellectual Crisis in Britain Today (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) and Cult Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan 1996), amongst many other titles.