$4.46
Details
America's Weirdest Riots: The History and Legacy of the Most Unique American Riots
Author: Charles River Editors
Narrator: Michelle Humphries
Unabridged: 2 hr 52 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 02/07/2023
Genre: History - United States
Synopsis
Riots are an aspect of American history that do not show up much in history textbooks, except for famous disturbances like the Boston Tea Party or the infamous New York City draft riots of 1863. The reality is that the country has experienced thousands of riots, from early colonial times through to the present, and the issues leading up to some of the riots may seem quite peculiar to modern Americans. Americans have rioted over who was the best actor, and to free pirates from jail. Americans have rioted against bad working conditions, for the 8-hour day, against immigrants, for and against civil rights. Americans have had riots over eggnog, which Bible to use in schools, and when their favorite sports teams have won or lost.
For example, in 1788, the deadly Doctors' Riot occurred in New York City over the robbing of graves to provide medical students with bodies to dissect. An even stranger riot was the Eggnog Riot of 1826, when cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point rioted over Christmas eggnog.
In 1844, a debate in Philadelphia over whether to allow Catholic students in public schools to read the Catholic Douay Bible rather than the King James Version sparked two savage riots, known as the Bible Riots. In the City of Brotherly Love, the Bible Riots caused a number of casualties, and two churches and a seminary were burned to the ground.
The 1857 Dead Rabbits Riot featured gang violence in New York City, but it could only be understood by knowing about a previous police riot, and that for a time there were two separate police forces in New York City. The police were as apt to club each other as they were to club rioting gang members.The 1870 and 1871 Orange Riots were over the July 12 Orange parades that memorialized the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Despite the battle being almost 200 years earlier, Protestants and Irish Catholics were still fighting over it in New York City in an extremely bloody way.
by Michael Zuckert
Much of the political life of the United States takes the form of contests about rights. This passion for liberty was forged and stoked by the nation’s foundational documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights of the U.S. ...
Published: 05/01/2020
by Martin Luther King
April 16th. The year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama has had a spring of non-violent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers. The organizers lo...
Published: 04/15/2013
by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was undeniably one of the most influential politicians in American history. In this collection of letters, speeches, and other writings by Lincoln, listeners can gain a uniquely intimate perspective on the sixteenth president of the ...
Published: 04/26/2011
by Charles River Editors
20th century Chicago was an ideal breeding ground for organized crime. A buzzing circuit board dotted with towering skyscrapers, brick buildings, worker's cottages, and an eclectic collection of greystone manors, the Windy City was further decked o...
Published: 03/23/2019
by David Von Drehle
As 1862 dawned, the American republic was at death’s door. The federal government appeared overwhelmed, the U.S. Treasury was broke, and the Union’s top general was gravely ill. The Confederacy—with its booming economy, expert mili...
Published: 12/11/2012
by Robert McDonald
Explore the captivating contradictions of one of U.S. history’s most divisive figures with the celebrated West Point professor and author of Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time.Thomas Jefferson was the first secr...
Published: 04/28/2020
by Abraham Lincoln
This was the first speech given by the newly-elected President of the United States. In an already tense state, Lincoln made the address with the hopes that the discordant South would listen. While reinforcing that the Union would never break, he en...
Published: 10/02/2018
by James M. McPherson
James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, and arguably the finest Civil War historian in the world, walks us through the site of the bloodiest and perhaps most consequential battle ever fought by Americ...
Published: 03/05/2003
by Daniel Okrent
America’s obsession with its own history has resulted in innumerable bestsellers. Like baseball and the Civil War, Prohibition is one of the grand American topics, and now it is the subject of Daniel Okrent’s masterful, prize-worthy tour...
Published: 05/11/2010