ABSTRACT
Michael Keith distinguishes between the 'public and private life of a riot' and the events neatly illustrate how disparate private events have entered public histories as a unified incident of disorder. In the case of Nottingham, there were two weekends during August 1958 when relatively large numbers of people engaged in street disturbances in a small area. Following these incidents in Nottingham attention switched to events in Notting Hill. The events in Notting Hill occurred over a longer time period than those in Nottingham. As was the case with the events in Nottingham, there is little evidence to explain how or when the disorders died away. One of the central themes of the reactions to the disorders in 1958–1959 was the socio-economic problems of the localities in which they occurred. The socio-economic issues were interpreted through a racialised account which effectively blamed the migrants for exacerbating the housing and unemployment problems.
