Riots in the cities

Silvia Marina Arrom, Servando Ortoll

The 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 underprivileged city dwellers before the twentieth century has either received little scholarly attention or has been downplayed. Researchers often described urban inhabitants as having little influence both over their lives and on the politics of their day. The elite, on the other hand, was perceived as having firm control over the political process. The seven essays in this reader analyze urban riots that broke out in major population centers in Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia between 1765 and 1910. Inspired by the works of Eric Hobsbawm and George Rude, the authors find that the participants in these riots were far from irrational. The crowds...

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