Summer of Unrest: Generation Vexed

Summer of Unrest (Slight Return): For a few days at the start of August, England was gripped by the riots that erupted in its city centres. Although there were various motivations behind the trouble and a broad spectrum of ages and backgrounds involved, the front pages were emblazoned with images of hooded youths running amok and stories of the revenge of the feral underclass. In this final part of the Brain Shots: Summer of Unrest series, Nikesh Shukla and Kieran Yates interrogate whether young people are deliberately conforming to a stereotype foisted upon them, and point instead to the creativity and entrepreneurialism that are defining a supposedly 'lost' generation. An antidote to the broadsheet commentariat, this street-level view of the defining moment of the Summer of Unrest finds much to inspire hope and confidence for our future.

Nikesh is Booktrust's web editor