A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents

Alex Butterworth     2011     544p     6 x 9

In the late nineteenth century, nations the world over were mired in economic recession and beset by social unrest, their leaders increasingly threatened by acts of terrorism and assassination from anarchist extremists. In this riveting history of that tumultuous period, Alex Butterworth follows the rise of these revolutionaries from the failed Paris Commune of 1871 to the 1905 Russian Revolution and beyond. Through the interwoven stories of several key anarchists and the secret police who hunted them, Butterworth vividly describes how a movement born in idealism turned increasingly to desperate acts of terrorism and murder. While Butterworth’s conclusion are predictable, this book functions as a good overview of the era of dynamite.

$3-10