Christopher Tomlins
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691198668
- eISBN:
- 9780691199870
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691198668.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
In 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner led a band of Southampton County slaves in a rebellion that killed fifty-five whites, mostly women and children. After more than two months in hiding, Turner was ...
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In 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner led a band of Southampton County slaves in a rebellion that killed fifty-five whites, mostly women and children. After more than two months in hiding, Turner was captured, and quickly convicted and executed. This book penetrates the historical caricature of Turner as befuddled mystic and self-styled Baptist preacher to recover the haunting persona of this legendary American slave rebel, telling of his self-discovery and the dawning of his Christian faith, of an impossible task given to him by God, and of redemptive violence and profane retribution. Much about Turner remains unknown. His extraordinary account of his life and rebellion, given in chains as he awaited trial in jail, was written down by an opportunistic white attorney and sold as a pamphlet to cash in on Turner's notoriety. But the enigmatic rebel leader had an immediate and broad impact on the American South, and his rebellion remains one of the most momentous episodes in American history. This book provides a luminous account of Turner's intellectual development, religious cosmology, and motivations, and offers an original and incisive analysis of the Turner Rebellion itself and its impact on Virginia politics. The book also undertakes a critical examination of William Styron's 1967 novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner, which restored Turner to the American consciousness in the era of civil rights, black power, and urban riots. A speculative history that recovers Turner from the few shards of evidence we have about his life, the book is also a unique speculation about the meaning and uses of history itself.Less
In 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner led a band of Southampton County slaves in a rebellion that killed fifty-five whites, mostly women and children. After more than two months in hiding, Turner was captured, and quickly convicted and executed. This book penetrates the historical caricature of Turner as befuddled mystic and self-styled Baptist preacher to recover the haunting persona of this legendary American slave rebel, telling of his self-discovery and the dawning of his Christian faith, of an impossible task given to him by God, and of redemptive violence and profane retribution. Much about Turner remains unknown. His extraordinary account of his life and rebellion, given in chains as he awaited trial in jail, was written down by an opportunistic white attorney and sold as a pamphlet to cash in on Turner's notoriety. But the enigmatic rebel leader had an immediate and broad impact on the American South, and his rebellion remains one of the most momentous episodes in American history. This book provides a luminous account of Turner's intellectual development, religious cosmology, and motivations, and offers an original and incisive analysis of the Turner Rebellion itself and its impact on Virginia politics. The book also undertakes a critical examination of William Styron's 1967 novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner, which restored Turner to the American consciousness in the era of civil rights, black power, and urban riots. A speculative history that recovers Turner from the few shards of evidence we have about his life, the book is also a unique speculation about the meaning and uses of history itself.
Anoma Pieris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832216
- eISBN:
- 9780824870157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832216.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter traces the urban imagination of immigrant communities through an analysis of urban riots related to Muharram, the Muslim–Indian festival appropriated by both convicts and immigrant ...
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This chapter traces the urban imagination of immigrant communities through an analysis of urban riots related to Muharram, the Muslim–Indian festival appropriated by both convicts and immigrant settlers that became their common meeting point. The festival, which included Indian, Chinese, and Malay participants, was inaccessible to Europeans and took on an identity of its own in the Straits Settlements, based on associations with place. More importantly, it was combined with the Boria, a form of Muslim–Indian folk drama, which was used to construct both cultural and territorial identities, often quite violently. Far from being a utopian site of an alternative morality, the festival was the site of intense competition between migrant groups, who marginalized the Straits government through their activities. The motive behind the Muharram festival was to disrupt colonial urban space, one of the few arenas available for common cultural negotiations, and to challenge its spatial determinants.Less
This chapter traces the urban imagination of immigrant communities through an analysis of urban riots related to Muharram, the Muslim–Indian festival appropriated by both convicts and immigrant settlers that became their common meeting point. The festival, which included Indian, Chinese, and Malay participants, was inaccessible to Europeans and took on an identity of its own in the Straits Settlements, based on associations with place. More importantly, it was combined with the Boria, a form of Muslim–Indian folk drama, which was used to construct both cultural and territorial identities, often quite violently. Far from being a utopian site of an alternative morality, the festival was the site of intense competition between migrant groups, who marginalized the Straits government through their activities. The motive behind the Muharram festival was to disrupt colonial urban space, one of the few arenas available for common cultural negotiations, and to challenge its spatial determinants.
Hervé Tchumkam
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620665
- eISBN:
- 9781789623666
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620665.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
The fall 2005 riots in France unveiled a war of representation about France’s past and present, and also sparked the reference to imperial legacies to examine current social disqualification and ...
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The fall 2005 riots in France unveiled a war of representation about France’s past and present, and also sparked the reference to imperial legacies to examine current social disqualification and racial discrimination in France. This essay examines the close relationship between banlieues and memory in contemporary France, with a special emphasis on the analogy between the outskirts of major French cities populated mainly by the heirs of African migrations to Europe and the colonies. This reading of the banlieues that builds on the war of memories contends that present ideologies in France are part of an emerging global belief in the ‘clash of civilizations’. Ultimately, this paper argues that it is urgent that the banlieues cease to be perceived as lawless zones to become real lieux de mémoire that can constitute a site where both the French State and its citizens of African heritage can converge around a healed common memory.Less
The fall 2005 riots in France unveiled a war of representation about France’s past and present, and also sparked the reference to imperial legacies to examine current social disqualification and racial discrimination in France. This essay examines the close relationship between banlieues and memory in contemporary France, with a special emphasis on the analogy between the outskirts of major French cities populated mainly by the heirs of African migrations to Europe and the colonies. This reading of the banlieues that builds on the war of memories contends that present ideologies in France are part of an emerging global belief in the ‘clash of civilizations’. Ultimately, this paper argues that it is urgent that the banlieues cease to be perceived as lawless zones to become real lieux de mémoire that can constitute a site where both the French State and its citizens of African heritage can converge around a healed common memory.
Luis Daniel Gascón and Aaron Roussell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479871209
- eISBN:
- 9781479870318
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479871209.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter closely examines three of LA’s biggest violent disturbances—the 1943 Government Riot (popularly known as the Zoot Suit Riots), the 1965 Watts Rebellion, and the 1992 Rodney King ...
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This chapter closely examines three of LA’s biggest violent disturbances—the 1943 Government Riot (popularly known as the Zoot Suit Riots), the 1965 Watts Rebellion, and the 1992 Rodney King Uprisings. Each section begins with a brief recounting of the circumstances of the outbreak of each disturbance. Following this, the authors discuss the preconditions of each event: from the social, economic, and political changes to the role of LA police and government in each period. Each section culminates in an analysis of the reports produced by each “riot commission.” The final section highlights what the authors found. Tracing LA’s history of violent disturbances, they show that community governance discourse has time and again been used as part of a larger public confidence-building project.Less
This chapter closely examines three of LA’s biggest violent disturbances—the 1943 Government Riot (popularly known as the Zoot Suit Riots), the 1965 Watts Rebellion, and the 1992 Rodney King Uprisings. Each section begins with a brief recounting of the circumstances of the outbreak of each disturbance. Following this, the authors discuss the preconditions of each event: from the social, economic, and political changes to the role of LA police and government in each period. Each section culminates in an analysis of the reports produced by each “riot commission.” The final section highlights what the authors found. Tracing LA’s history of violent disturbances, they show that community governance discourse has time and again been used as part of a larger public confidence-building project.
Luis Daniel Gascón and Aaron Roussell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479871209
- eISBN:
- 9781479870318
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479871209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Community policing structures erected in the wake of rising crime rates and civil disorder throughout the 1990s were supposed to provide civilians a platform from which to influence law enforcement ...
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Community policing structures erected in the wake of rising crime rates and civil disorder throughout the 1990s were supposed to provide civilians a platform from which to influence law enforcement policy. Yet the fires that burned in Ferguson in 2014 raise doubts about how much influence the public has on police, particularly in marginalized communities. This book challenges the common narrative that community policing has democratized the police, when there is ample evidence that US police powers have expanded alongside the proliferation of community-based strategies. It reveals how community governance works to limit civilian power and turn residents into appendages of the state—their “eyes and ears” on the street as well as their mouthpieces during crises. Further, the authors argue that disputes about who does and does not count as community complicate mobilization. Finally, they argue that until police departments are forced to adapt directly to the needs of communities of color, grassroots organizations should lead initiatives that purport to be community based.Less
Community policing structures erected in the wake of rising crime rates and civil disorder throughout the 1990s were supposed to provide civilians a platform from which to influence law enforcement policy. Yet the fires that burned in Ferguson in 2014 raise doubts about how much influence the public has on police, particularly in marginalized communities. This book challenges the common narrative that community policing has democratized the police, when there is ample evidence that US police powers have expanded alongside the proliferation of community-based strategies. It reveals how community governance works to limit civilian power and turn residents into appendages of the state—their “eyes and ears” on the street as well as their mouthpieces during crises. Further, the authors argue that disputes about who does and does not count as community complicate mobilization. Finally, they argue that until police departments are forced to adapt directly to the needs of communities of color, grassroots organizations should lead initiatives that purport to be community based.
Max Felker-Kantor
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469646831
- eISBN:
- 9781469646855
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469646831.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
When the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts erupted in violent protest in August 1965, the uprising drew strength from decades of pent-up frustration with employment discrimination, residential ...
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When the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts erupted in violent protest in August 1965, the uprising drew strength from decades of pent-up frustration with employment discrimination, residential segregation, and poverty. But the more immediate grievance was anger at the racist and abusive practices of the Los Angeles Police Department. Yet in the decades after Watts, the LAPD resisted all but the most limited demands for reform made by activists and residents of color, instead intensifying its power.
In Policing Los Angeles, Max Felker-Kantor narrates the dynamic history of policing, anti-police abuse movements, race, and politics in Los Angeles from the 1965 Watts uprising to the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion. Using the explosions of two large-scale uprisings in Los Angeles as bookends, Felker-Kantor highlights the racism at the heart of the city's expansive police power through a range of previously unused and rare archival sources. His book is a gripping and timely account of the transformation in police power, the convergence of interests in support of law and order policies, and African American and Mexican American resistance to police violence after the Watts uprising.Less
When the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts erupted in violent protest in August 1965, the uprising drew strength from decades of pent-up frustration with employment discrimination, residential segregation, and poverty. But the more immediate grievance was anger at the racist and abusive practices of the Los Angeles Police Department. Yet in the decades after Watts, the LAPD resisted all but the most limited demands for reform made by activists and residents of color, instead intensifying its power.
In Policing Los Angeles, Max Felker-Kantor narrates the dynamic history of policing, anti-police abuse movements, race, and politics in Los Angeles from the 1965 Watts uprising to the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion. Using the explosions of two large-scale uprisings in Los Angeles as bookends, Felker-Kantor highlights the racism at the heart of the city's expansive police power through a range of previously unused and rare archival sources. His book is a gripping and timely account of the transformation in police power, the convergence of interests in support of law and order policies, and African American and Mexican American resistance to police violence after the Watts uprising.
Luis Daniel Gascón and Aaron Roussell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479871209
- eISBN:
- 9781479870318
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479871209.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter opens with an exchange in a community meeting about the Rodney King riots, which raises questions about the nature of these meetings, the role of police in civil disorder, and the nature ...
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This chapter opens with an exchange in a community meeting about the Rodney King riots, which raises questions about the nature of these meetings, the role of police in civil disorder, and the nature of police-community relations. The authors trace the origins of community policing as key liberal reform premised on the maintenance of legitimacy. They outline the “eyes and ears” function civilians are expected to play in meetings and explain how neighborhood disputes can limit the mobilizing potential of community partnerships. The authors also discuss the setting where this study takes place and outline their methods. This chapter ends with an outline of the rest of the book.Less
This chapter opens with an exchange in a community meeting about the Rodney King riots, which raises questions about the nature of these meetings, the role of police in civil disorder, and the nature of police-community relations. The authors trace the origins of community policing as key liberal reform premised on the maintenance of legitimacy. They outline the “eyes and ears” function civilians are expected to play in meetings and explain how neighborhood disputes can limit the mobilizing potential of community partnerships. The authors also discuss the setting where this study takes place and outline their methods. This chapter ends with an outline of the rest of the book.
Geoff Payne
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781447310662
- eISBN:
- 9781447310686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447310662.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
The idea that (upward) mobility rates are too low attracts politicians who can then use it to criticise their opponents. In recent internal party struggles, both New Labour and the ‘Orange Book’ ...
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The idea that (upward) mobility rates are too low attracts politicians who can then use it to criticise their opponents. In recent internal party struggles, both New Labour and the ‘Orange Book’ LibDems needed new symbols of legitimation, while the younger generation of Tories could use it against the ‘Old Guard’. But mobility is also part of growing discontent among the ‘squeezed middle’ and the alienated working class. Some politicians’ ‘underclass anxiety’ about the restlessness of those excluded from the good things in life, helped motivate pro-mobility policies. Urban riots, the Scottish Referendum, and UKIP support, while of course not solely about lack of perceived mobility opportunities, all depended on a sense of disenfranchisement, distance from a closed and self-recruited elite, and no prospects for improvement.Less
The idea that (upward) mobility rates are too low attracts politicians who can then use it to criticise their opponents. In recent internal party struggles, both New Labour and the ‘Orange Book’ LibDems needed new symbols of legitimation, while the younger generation of Tories could use it against the ‘Old Guard’. But mobility is also part of growing discontent among the ‘squeezed middle’ and the alienated working class. Some politicians’ ‘underclass anxiety’ about the restlessness of those excluded from the good things in life, helped motivate pro-mobility policies. Urban riots, the Scottish Referendum, and UKIP support, while of course not solely about lack of perceived mobility opportunities, all depended on a sense of disenfranchisement, distance from a closed and self-recruited elite, and no prospects for improvement.
Bryan Hardin Thrift
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049311
- eISBN:
- 9780813050133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049311.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In retrospect, 1968 was the year a conservative era dawned. The year was so promising that Helms considered a run for governor. From 1968 until Helms’s election to the Senate in 1972, public anxiety ...
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In retrospect, 1968 was the year a conservative era dawned. The year was so promising that Helms considered a run for governor. From 1968 until Helms’s election to the Senate in 1972, public anxiety about urban riots, the failing effort in Vietnam, continued liberal influence, and the black power, anti-war, and feminist movements aided his efforts to increase the backlash against Democrats. But a shift toward conservatives was far from certain. Helms feared that the 1968 Republican presidential nominee, Richard Nixon, would run as a moderate out of political expediency. Helms used WRAL to push the debate as far to the right as possible during the election, and afterward he never hesitated to criticize Nixon. Helms’s entrance into the 1972 senatorial election culminated over two decades of mixing his media career with politics. He only reluctantly engaged in retail politics. He was first of all a media insider—a news director, a reluctant entertainment executive, and a conservative television personality. He had refined pious incitement for eleven years on WRAL. Along with his campaign manager and close friend Tom Ellis, Helms used pious incitement in a massive advertising campaign to depict his opponent—Congressman Nick Galifianakis—as an out-of-touch liberal.Less
In retrospect, 1968 was the year a conservative era dawned. The year was so promising that Helms considered a run for governor. From 1968 until Helms’s election to the Senate in 1972, public anxiety about urban riots, the failing effort in Vietnam, continued liberal influence, and the black power, anti-war, and feminist movements aided his efforts to increase the backlash against Democrats. But a shift toward conservatives was far from certain. Helms feared that the 1968 Republican presidential nominee, Richard Nixon, would run as a moderate out of political expediency. Helms used WRAL to push the debate as far to the right as possible during the election, and afterward he never hesitated to criticize Nixon. Helms’s entrance into the 1972 senatorial election culminated over two decades of mixing his media career with politics. He only reluctantly engaged in retail politics. He was first of all a media insider—a news director, a reluctant entertainment executive, and a conservative television personality. He had refined pious incitement for eleven years on WRAL. Along with his campaign manager and close friend Tom Ellis, Helms used pious incitement in a massive advertising campaign to depict his opponent—Congressman Nick Galifianakis—as an out-of-touch liberal.