Psychology of Mob Violence A look at A Tale of Two Cities, the L.A. Riots, and the London Riots Mr. Li ENGL 10WL FTHS Fall 2013

Crowd Psychology (from Wikipedia) Task: Write down 3 bullet points from the summary Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change. Social scientists have developed several different theories for explaining crowd psychology: the psychology of the crowd differs significantly from the psychology of those individuals within it.

Make a Chart A Tale of Two Cities London Riots August 2011 LA Riots Objective of Riot Diction – What is going on? What is the tone of the piece? How effective is this on social change?

Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities As you listen to the audio excerpt from Book 2: Chapter 21, please take notes on your chart for discussion.

How does Dicken’s Use Mob Violence as a vehicle for literary plot? What does Dicken’s use as a metaphor for Mob Violence? How effective is it?

The London Riots 2011 Video

The LA Riots – 1992 Civil Unrest Video

Similarities/Differences Circle the similarities. What are the differences? Full class Discussion

Example of Mob Violence Freedom Riders ( 4Bs ) 4Bs LA Riots 1992 ( 0PwQ ) 0PwQ London Riot Clip 1 ( td3C55Yc ) td3C55Yc London Riot Clip 2 ( MfymI ) MfymI

Read article about the Psychology of Mob Violence What is the authors main claim? Do you agree or disagree with his claim? Why? Article can be found at: psychological-myths-facts-solutions/story?id=