ABSTRACT
In the case of empirical research, Rudé's studies of the crowd in France and England between 1730 and 1848, and recent research on black rioters, offer slight support for the image of the crowd participant held by earlier observers. The factors mentioned have produced a healthy corrective to the image of the crowd held by earlier theorists and still held by a large proportion of the American public. The number of attributes to be used in characterizing riots is large, and we lack a generally-agreed-upon set of concepts or measures for classifying them. Most earlier theorists, while classifying types of crowd, did not single out riots or deal with types of riot. Relatively less attention has been focused on the nature of the legitimating belief, consequences of various types of riot, the type of prior context out of which the riot emerges, different patterns of development and questions of a sociological nature which can be asked about any group activity.
