Mob violence is a phenomenon that has plagued the United States at various times throughout the twentieth century. The events that occurred in Los Angeles in 1992 shed new light on the circumstances that bring about the violence, and the political context in which federal policy responds to the seemingly intractable social and economic problems which underlie the violence. In Understanding Urban Unrest Dennis E Gale compares the federal programmes that have been tested since 1966; makes observations about the probable political response to urban interracial violence and poverty in the future, and concludes that place-based patchwork policies are not effective; and argues that only fundamental changes in the economic structuring of th