The Tehran Bread Riots (December 8-9, 1942) were an important moment in the history of Iranian democracy and its tradition of urban social protest. One of the consequences of the political and economic liberalization that accompanied the Anglo-Soviet invasion and occupation of Iran (1941-1946) were urban bread shortages. On the December 9, 1942, students from across Tehran organized a march on the parliament building in Baharistan square to demand the government address the food shortage and social conditions. After delivering a series of speeches, the students were joined by another crowd, described in the sources only as gangsters, militants, and anarchists, who stormed the parliament building, looted shops, and burned down the prime minister’s home. Ervand Abrahamian, Stephen McFarland, and Fakhreddin Azimi have examined the Bread Riots from the perspective intrigues between Iranian elites and the manipulations of foreign embassies. In all these accounts, the mob were pawns of Mohammad Shah Pahlavi and were part of a plot to undermine Prime Minister Qavam. However, the actions of the crowd point not towards elite machinations, but toward an autonomous subaltern consciousness that deeply resented both domestic and foreign elites. My research uses a new lens and new documents to examine the interests and desires of the Tehran underclass. The U.S. embassy in Tehran followed events closely and was critical of British accounts of events. I also examine editorials in Etella’at as well as smaller Iranian newspapers for important details about the composition and actions of the crowd. I also use a subaltern method to read documents against the grain to re-construct the aims of the crowd. By tracing the targets of mass violence, we can begin to describe the objectives and aims of collective action.