Anarchism
Anarchism and anarchists and anything associated with the thinking, the people, or the history generally get a raw deal from the media and even mainstream historians. It is true that anarchism is profoundly anti-authoritarian, but its popular association with violence (wild-eyed bearded men throwing bombs) is exaggerated, even fictionalized by the very forces threatened by it, namely governments and the media with vested interests in things as they are.
As with any subversive political and economic movement, some proponents became impatient and felt justified in striking out in vengeance or justice. Thus you have Alexander Berkman and his attempted assassination of Pennsylvanian Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and Leon Czolgosz and his successful assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Berkman, however, served his time in jail, wrote a deep and insightful account of his experience and went on to write more worthwhile books on the subject which possessed his life. (Czolgosz did not have that opportunity, being executed forty-five days after the death of his victim.)
Anarchism survived its dramatic beginnings in the 19th Century, however, and interested readers can find its articulate concern with agricultural reform, labor rights, and prophetic worries about the growth of the surveillance state in many excellent books. Here you will find books and a superb documentary on Sacco and Vanzetti (as well as Woody Guthrie's cd of his investigation into the miscarriage of justice). Here you will find histories, biographies, anthologies, memoirs, and fiction. It is a rich tradition, relevant to this day and to the future.
The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper from 1916-1917
The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper from 1916-1917
"The pages of The Blast seem to smell of black powder, or better, seem to have blown out of the eye of a social hurricane. A sense of absolute emergency pervades almost every column." —Richard Drinnon
After serving as editor for Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, Alexander Berkman moved to San Francisco and started his own newspaper. This historical facsimile reprint of the complete 29 issues in their entirety (typos, ads, and all!) features articles, letters, news, and editorials by Berkman and his revolutionarily-minded contemporaries. Topics include the political trial of labor activists Mooney-Billings, a profile of Pancho Villa, the imprisonment of the Magon brothers, the arrests of Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger for birth control agitation, and anti-conscription actions. Complete with the original powerful political artwork and photos, this new edition includes an introduction by Emma Goldman Papers archivist Barry Pateman, who provides a lengthy contextual essay, explaining Berkman's life at the time, the social and political situation, and his ever-torturous relationship with Emma Goldman.