diff --git a/activesupport/CHANGELOG b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
index d9e0635295..d0d0433883 100644
--- a/activesupport/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Add config.active_support.escape_html_entities_in_json to allow disabling of html entity escaping.  [rick]
+
 * Improve documentation. [Xavier Noria]
 
 * Modified ActiveSupport::Callbacks::Callback#call to accept multiple arguments.
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json.rb
index 5acb02dbe9..914cf4f8fe 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,25 @@
-require 'active_support/json/encoding'
-require 'active_support/json/decoding'
+
 
 module ActiveSupport
+  # If true, use ISO 8601 format for dates and times.  Otherwise, fall back to the ActiveSupport legacy format.
   mattr_accessor :use_standard_json_time_format
 
+  class << self
+    def escape_html_entities_in_json
+      @escape_html_entities_in_json
+    end
+
+    def escape_html_entities_in_json=(value)
+      ActiveSupport::JSON::Encoding.escape_regex = \
+        if value
+          /[\010\f\n\r\t"\\><&]/
+        else
+          /[\010\f\n\r\t"\\]/
+        end
+      @escape_html_entities_in_json = value
+    end
+  end
+
   module JSON
     RESERVED_WORDS = %w(
       abstract      delete        goto          private       transient
@@ -31,3 +47,6 @@ module ActiveSupport
     end
   end
 end
+
+require 'active_support/json/encoding'
+require 'active_support/json/decoding'
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoders/string.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoders/string.rb
index 20ca91f9aa..5ef797955a 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoders/string.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoders/string.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 module ActiveSupport
   module JSON
     module Encoding
+      mattr_accessor :escape_regex
+
       ESCAPED_CHARS = {
         "\010" =>  '\b',
         "\f"   =>  '\f',
@@ -17,9 +19,11 @@ module ActiveSupport
   end
 end
 
+ActiveSupport.escape_html_entities_in_json = true
+
 class String
   def to_json(options = nil) #:nodoc:
-    json = '"' + gsub(/[\010\f\n\r\t"\\><&]/) { |s|
+    json = '"' + gsub(ActiveSupport::JSON::Encoding.escape_regex) { |s|
       ActiveSupport::JSON::Encoding::ESCAPED_CHARS[s]
     }
     json.force_encoding('ascii-8bit') if respond_to?(:force_encoding)
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
index adfbfd5f72..8650e34228 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 require 'active_support/json/variable'
-
 require 'active_support/json/encoders/object' # Require explicitly for rdoc.
 Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/encoders/**/*.rb"].each do |file|
   basename = File.basename(file, '.rb')
diff --git a/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb b/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
index 290232988a..7bc8eaf06c 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
@@ -38,15 +38,18 @@ class TestJSONEncoding < Test::Unit::TestCase
   StandardDateTests     = [[ Date.new(2005,2,1), %("2005-02-01") ]]
   StandardTimeTests     = [[ Time.utc(2005,2,1,15,15,10), %("2005-02-01T15:15:10Z") ]]
   StandardDateTimeTests = [[ DateTime.civil(2005,2,1,15,15,10), %("2005-02-01T15:15:10+00:00") ]]
+  StandardStringTests   = [[ 'this is the <string>', %("this is the <string>")]]
 
   constants.grep(/Tests$/).each do |class_tests|
     define_method("test_#{class_tests[0..-6].underscore}") do
       begin
+        ActiveSupport.escape_html_entities_in_json  = class_tests !~ /^Standard/
         ActiveSupport.use_standard_json_time_format = class_tests =~ /^Standard/
         self.class.const_get(class_tests).each do |pair|
           assert_equal pair.last, pair.first.to_json
         end
       ensure
+        ActiveSupport.escape_html_entities_in_json  = false
         ActiveSupport.use_standard_json_time_format = false
       end
     end