In Defense of Looting

A Riotous History of Uncivil Action

hardcover, 288 pages

Published Aug. 25, 2020 by Bold Type Books.

ISBN:
978-1-64503-669-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1191840698

View on OpenLibrary

View on Inventaire

No rating (0 reviews)

Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions that can take place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement.

But Vicky Osterweil argues that stealing goods and destroying property are direct, pragmatic strategies of wealth redistribution and improving life for the working class -- not to mention the brazen messages these methods send to the police and the state. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous oppression.

From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In …

4 editions