America Riots by the Numbers

The Boston Bread Riot. The Zip to Zap Riots. The Baltimore Doctors’ Riots. The Pennsylvania Brothel Riots. The Hawaii Riot. The Red Summer Riots. The Smallpox Riot. The Zoot Suit Riots. Look at the name of a riot and the mind craves details: Why? How many? For how long? Sometimes it’s just the name of a place: Kent State, Watts, Crown Heights. Or a year: 1968.

Do we riot more or less these days? My first thought is that 1968 was the apex of rioting – but flip through any history of New York City and you’ll see Germans, Irish, Whigs, Protestants, abolitionists, and draft-dodgers mixing it up in the 1800s with surprising frequency.