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Mad Mobs & Englishmen? Myths and Realities of the 2011 Riots
Myths and realities of the London riots - from leading world experts in crowd behaviour, rioting and hooliganism
In August 2011, London and many other English towns and cities erupted into some of the worst rioting for decades. David Cameron blamed a broken society with a sick morality; Tony Blair a defiant underclass. Yet with no evidence to support their claims, their remarks were typical of the storm of uninformed comments that followed the riots, based largely on longstanding misconceptions of why people riot. With their extensive expertise in crowd behaviour and psychology, and years of research experience studying crowds, riots and hooliganism worldwide, psychologists Steve Reicher and Cliff Stott challenge the myths of the 2011 riots perpetuated in the media and elsewhere; consider the reality on the ground and how to avoid a repeat scenario.
'An excellent and important book. In this fascinating account, Reicher and Stott challenge the widespread dismissal of the riots as "criminality pure and simple." They offer compelling evidence for an alternative view of what really caused the uprisings. All of us, especially our policy makers, need to take note in order to prevent more riots in the future.'
George Akerlof, Nobel Prize-Winner in Economics, 2001 and Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley
'Readable, considered and enlightening... at last, an authoritative examination of the riots by leading experts on the social psychology of crowd behaviour. Anyone who really wants to understand the riots should read this.'
Claudia Hammond, writer and broadcaster
'The aftermath of the summer riots saw a rush to find simple explanations - few of them rooted in evidence. Reicher and Stott's book marks one of the first attempts to look beyond the political rhetoric. Drilling down into two case studies - disturbances in Tottenham and Hackney - they have emerged with some intriguing insights into what the disorder may have been about.'
Paul Lewis, Special Projects Editor for The Guardian
'Insightful and well-argued� one of the most penetrating analyses of "rioting" ever published. A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the issues behind urban conflict.'
Jim Sidanius, Professor of Psychology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University
'This reasoned and intelligent approach is in stark contrast to the moral panics apparent in Westminster and the media in the immediate aftermath of the riots. They have endeavoured to present a carefully researched document that seeks to understand such events and find workable strategies to prevent future occurrences and should be congratulated.'
Superintendent Roger Evans, former Deputy Commander of the Metropolitan Police Territorial Support Group.
In August 2011, London and many other English towns and cities erupted into some of the worst rioting for decades. David Cameron blamed a broken society with a sick morality; Tony Blair a defiant underclass. Yet with no evidence to support their claims, their remarks were typical of the storm of uninformed comments that followed the riots, based largely on longstanding misconceptions of why people riot. With their extensive expertise in crowd behaviour and psychology, and years of research experience studying crowds, riots and hooliganism worldwide, psychologists Steve Reicher and Cliff Stott challenge the myths of the 2011 riots perpetuated in the media and elsewhere; consider the reality on the ground and how to avoid a repeat scenario.
'An excellent and important book. In this fascinating account, Reicher and Stott challenge the widespread dismissal of the riots as "criminality pure and simple." They offer compelling evidence for an alternative view of what really caused the uprisings. All of us, especially our policy makers, need to take note in order to prevent more riots in the future.'
George Akerlof, Nobel Prize-Winner in Economics, 2001 and Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley
'Readable, considered and enlightening... at last, an authoritative examination of the riots by leading experts on the social psychology of crowd behaviour. Anyone who really wants to understand the riots should read this.'
Claudia Hammond, writer and broadcaster
'The aftermath of the summer riots saw a rush to find simple explanations - few of them rooted in evidence. Reicher and Stott's book marks one of the first attempts to look beyond the political rhetoric. Drilling down into two case studies - disturbances in Tottenham and Hackney - they have emerged with some intriguing insights into what the disorder may have been about.'
Paul Lewis, Special Projects Editor for The Guardian
'Insightful and well-argued� one of the most penetrating analyses of "rioting" ever published. A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the issues behind urban conflict.'
Jim Sidanius, Professor of Psychology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University
'This reasoned and intelligent approach is in stark contrast to the moral panics apparent in Westminster and the media in the immediate aftermath of the riots. They have endeavoured to present a carefully researched document that seeks to understand such events and find workable strategies to prevent future occurrences and should be congratulated.'
Superintendent Roger Evans, former Deputy Commander of the Metropolitan Police Territorial Support Group.
109 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 18, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 19, 2019
This was a really Interesting brief look at crowd psychology and how it can be used to explain the 2011 London riots.
I read this because I'm studying crowd psychology, for my degree. I think it really helped solidify my understanding of the topic.
However, I don't think you need to be a psychology student to read this book. If you are interested in the 2011 riots, and want to find out why they happened, away from the sensationalist and inaccurate media headlines, I think this would be a great read.
My only complaint, was that it was quite short. It was just over 100 pages. I would have liked some more details but if you are looking for a broad overview of the topic, I think this would be a great book to read.
It's very easy to read, not to more complex jargon.
Overview, I definitely found this interesting and think it will aid my studies
I read this because I'm studying crowd psychology, for my degree. I think it really helped solidify my understanding of the topic.
However, I don't think you need to be a psychology student to read this book. If you are interested in the 2011 riots, and want to find out why they happened, away from the sensationalist and inaccurate media headlines, I think this would be a great read.
My only complaint, was that it was quite short. It was just over 100 pages. I would have liked some more details but if you are looking for a broad overview of the topic, I think this would be a great book to read.
It's very easy to read, not to more complex jargon.
Overview, I definitely found this interesting and think it will aid my studies
March 4, 2022
After reading The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon and enjoying some parts of it, I decided to read this to see what the subject of crowd psychology has evolved into. Having read this book, it seems (thankfully) that there is a great deal more nuance in the field than Le Bon was willing to allow for in his various absolute statements.
Despite the fact that I'm reading this book more than a decade late, I remember the London riots of 2011 well, primarily for them being the time in my life when I realised exactly how fascistic the average liberal can get when they feel they're justified. Friends I've known since childhood who had promoted a 'peace and love' style existence for years suddenly started saying things like 'send in the army'. It was a strange and eye-opening time. Anyway, this book captures that mood perfectly in its various eye-witness accounts and political/journalistic responses.
The first two chapters are really where the theory lies. Reicher & Stott recount journalists using terms like 'feral rats' and arguing that the riots had nothing to do with poverty, Prime Minister David Cameron condemning them as criminals with moral deficiencies, and epidemiologist Gary Slutkin building on Le Bon's ideas of contagion to claim that violence is like a contagious disease (apparently lacking rationality).
Reicher & Stott claim that there tends to be three reasons given for rioting by forces like these:
1) Mad - Contagion drives us to do terrible things in groups.
2) Bad - Rioters are morally deficient criminals
3) Dangerous to know - Agitators start riots for their own purposes
These three are often used in combination and their function is to allow us to avoid responsibility rather than face reality, and it's for this reason these arguments are always popular. They attempt to argue against these claims with a reasonable degree of success in my view, and although they could have been a little more comprehensive here, I think the goal was simply to highlight that, despite what the media/politicians say, it's not all cut and dry.
They go on to claim that riots are caused by:
1) A sense of illegitimate treatment of what rioters perceive as 'their kind'
2) A sense that nothing short of confrontation can change anything
3) Confidence that the group is now sufficiently strong to mount a challenge
I really enjoyed both of these chapters, and really liked the first half of the chapter describing the (known) key-events of the riots in Tottenham and Hackney, although I did find myself tiring slightly of it by the end of the chapter as Reicher & Stott moved onto riots in other parts of the country. It was interesting, it just got a bit repetitive. Following this point, the rest of the book was fine and made for a serviceable wind-down from some really great ideas early on.
Overall then, I found this to be a great book to read after Le Bon's The Crowd, fine-tuning some of his ideas, outright disagreeing with others and doing so in a tone that feels far less like a stuffy toff trying to figure out how to stop all those horrible poor people from ruining everything, and much more like a carefully thought out plea for contemplation, rather than hysterical condemnation.
I'll close with a paraphrasing of a line that I felt really summed up the riots:
Often, looting is less about getting something for free than it is about taking it from your oppressor.
Despite the fact that I'm reading this book more than a decade late, I remember the London riots of 2011 well, primarily for them being the time in my life when I realised exactly how fascistic the average liberal can get when they feel they're justified. Friends I've known since childhood who had promoted a 'peace and love' style existence for years suddenly started saying things like 'send in the army'. It was a strange and eye-opening time. Anyway, this book captures that mood perfectly in its various eye-witness accounts and political/journalistic responses.
The first two chapters are really where the theory lies. Reicher & Stott recount journalists using terms like 'feral rats' and arguing that the riots had nothing to do with poverty, Prime Minister David Cameron condemning them as criminals with moral deficiencies, and epidemiologist Gary Slutkin building on Le Bon's ideas of contagion to claim that violence is like a contagious disease (apparently lacking rationality).
Reicher & Stott claim that there tends to be three reasons given for rioting by forces like these:
1) Mad - Contagion drives us to do terrible things in groups.
2) Bad - Rioters are morally deficient criminals
3) Dangerous to know - Agitators start riots for their own purposes
These three are often used in combination and their function is to allow us to avoid responsibility rather than face reality, and it's for this reason these arguments are always popular. They attempt to argue against these claims with a reasonable degree of success in my view, and although they could have been a little more comprehensive here, I think the goal was simply to highlight that, despite what the media/politicians say, it's not all cut and dry.
They go on to claim that riots are caused by:
1) A sense of illegitimate treatment of what rioters perceive as 'their kind'
2) A sense that nothing short of confrontation can change anything
3) Confidence that the group is now sufficiently strong to mount a challenge
I really enjoyed both of these chapters, and really liked the first half of the chapter describing the (known) key-events of the riots in Tottenham and Hackney, although I did find myself tiring slightly of it by the end of the chapter as Reicher & Stott moved onto riots in other parts of the country. It was interesting, it just got a bit repetitive. Following this point, the rest of the book was fine and made for a serviceable wind-down from some really great ideas early on.
Overall then, I found this to be a great book to read after Le Bon's The Crowd, fine-tuning some of his ideas, outright disagreeing with others and doing so in a tone that feels far less like a stuffy toff trying to figure out how to stop all those horrible poor people from ruining everything, and much more like a carefully thought out plea for contemplation, rather than hysterical condemnation.
I'll close with a paraphrasing of a line that I felt really summed up the riots:
Often, looting is less about getting something for free than it is about taking it from your oppressor.
October 11, 2018
An important read for everyone. A clear and easily understood explanati9n of how the riots happened. And it's not what the government told you.
March 25, 2013
An interesting and evidently well researched look into the UK riots. I was in the UK at the time, and this definitely gives a different perspective from what was appearing in the news. It was interestng the comparisons with other riots, and how the root causes weren't all that different, but that there were also multiple, separate riots, all based on different reasons.
September 29, 2024
I ended up reading this book for my uni course work and this is one of the better ones I have read compared to most. Not only did it help me to understand that riots are not just out of control events but instead in many cases are planned and organised but just how quickly things can descend into chaos between the ever going conflict of the police and those in disadvantaged positions
January 4, 2012
An incisive essay on the psychology of riots with particular attention to the recent London riots. The authors make interesting use of online resources like YouTube's user content to underline their points.
July 31, 2012
Superb introduction to crowd psychology and how it relates to the London riots of 2011. It dispels the myth that the riots were about mindless criminality and firmly places some responsibility at the feet of the police and the government.
March 6, 2017
Read as part of my OU studies , there is a clear bias but none the less this is an intelligent and thoughtful analysis of the riots and seems to present an alternative understanding to the mindless yob view .
Excellent use of you tube and social media to evidence their points.
Excellent use of you tube and social media to evidence their points.
January 30, 2013
An interesting examination of the riots that took place in Tottenham and then spread to other areas and cities.
March 30, 2015
Fantastic insight into the complexity of riots. Also highlights the dangerous rhetoric used by politicians.
May 28, 2015
Great book, but there's a sense they've barely scratched the surface. A lot more interview evidence is out there, would be interesting to hear more stories.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews