Revolting New York

Like a woke dog zapped by an invisible electric barrier whenever it tries to leave the yard, I now recognize the real reason I can’t escape this place. Revolting New York is an electrifying compendium of tales of four centuries of the energetic insubordination that is so completely foundational to our character. While the causes and constituencies have varied all over our map, the constant has been taking to the streets, fomenting an unending festival of resistance. I couldn’t be prouder than to discover that my homes downtown have been at uprising’s very epicenter. You can’t scare me, I’m sticking to the Union Square!

* author of What Goes Up: The Rights and Wrongs of the City *

Revolting New York takes you on a whirlwind tour of Indian wars, riots, slave revolts, strikes, protests, and police rampages, from Dutch New Amsterdam to Occupy Wall Street. The sheer number and ferocity of past disorders, and the strangeness of so many of them, will leave you seeing the history of New York as you never did before.

* author of Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II *

Urban unrest, observed Alain Locke after the Harlem Riots of 1935, is like ‘a revealing flash of lightning’ that illuminates larger dynamics. Using this insight as premise and guide, Revolting New York reveals how the entire social history of the city can be narrated through those frequent moments, over the past four centuries, when the tensions of urban life, and the violence of inequality, have boiled over in its streets. This volume’s creators, led by two of our foremost urban geographers, show that you can’t understand social change or urban history without examining the ‘flashpoints’ through which the city is fought for—and sometimes even won—by people desirous of a life here that’s not revolting at all.

* coeditor of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas *

Revolting New York offers an extraordinary chronology of the Big Apple’s willingness to fight for, well, just about anything, from Munsee Indian attacks on Dutch settlers in 1655 to slave revolts in 1712 to antiabolitionist, flour, and military-draft riots in the mid 1800s to labor and communist unrest and all manner of rabble rousing throughout the last hundred years up to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and early Trump protests. In all, nearly fifty incidents are profiled in this history of 'New York’s evolution through revolution.'

* Foreword Reviews *

Revolting New York is an important and timely edited collection exploring the role of violent unrest in the history of New York City. This is an extremely good collection and a welcome addition to the complex history of New York City.

* Journal of American History *

Revolting New York brings together short chapters, vignettes, illustrations, and maps to highlight the long history of near-continuous rebellion that has shaped New York City. The book can serve effectively as a reference or—in our trying years of the early twenty-first century—a worthwhile reminder of the rich tradition of revolt in New York.

* H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online *

The writing is first-rate, with ample illustrations and many contemporary and historical images. Fast paced and fascinating, like the city it profiles.

* Library Journal *

Revolting New York was a real treat to read, which left me with a mixed feeling of despair and hope. . . . Will be of much interest not only to those interested in the city's past and present, but also to all those who are interested in urban unrest, racialization, class struggle, gender politics, policing, and the making and remaking of urban landscapes through tension, conflict, and struggle.

* AAG Book Review *

The editors and authors of Revolting New York set themselves a mammoth task. They should be proud of what they have achieved–the book is accessible, well-written, and engaging. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in urban history or dissent, and I’m sure I will be re-reading it, in whole and in part, many times in the future.

* Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geograp