Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist BackgroundThe Sacco-Vanzetti affair is the most famous and controversial case in American legal history. It divided the nation in the 1920s, and it has continued to arouse deep emotions, giving rise to an enormous literature. Few writers, however, have consulted anarchist sources for the wealth of information available there about the movement of which the defendants were a part. Now Paul Avrich, the preeminent American scholar of anarchism, looks at the case from this new and valuable perspective. This book treats a dramatic and hitherto neglected aspect of the cause célèbre that raised, according to Edmund Wilson, "almost every fundamental question of our political and social system." |
Contents
Italian Childhoods | 9 |
Free Country | 21 |
Vanzetti | 31 |
Anarchists | 45 |
Mexico | 58 |
Face to Face with the Enemy | 93 |
Carlo and Ella | 104 |
Deportations Delirium | 122 |
Manhunt | 165 |
The Spy | 178 |
Death of Salsedo | 188 |
The Arrest | 196 |
Epilogue | 208 |
Notes | 219 |
249 | |
257 | |
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Common terms and phrases
agents aliens American anar anarchism Antolini April arrested Attorney Bartolomeo Bartolomeo Vanzetti Beltrando bomb Bresci Brini Bureau of Investigation Carlo Carlo Tresca Chicago Coacci Coda comrades conspiracy Cronaca Sovversiva D'Attilio death Department of Justice deportation Donato dynamite East Boston Elia Emma Goldman explosion factory February Federal Bureau Felicani Finch Flynn friends Galleanists Gruppo Hoover Ibid Immigration Interview Italian anarchists Italy January June Kelley L'Adunata Labor later Letters of Sacco lived Luigi Galleani March Mario Buda Massachusetts Mexico Milford militant Mitchell Palmer months movement never Nicola O'Hare Palmer on Charges paper Paterson Plain Words Plymouth police Press prison Proletarian radical raid Ravarini Recchi Red Scare remained returned Sacco and Vanzetti Sacco e Vanzetti Sacco-Vanzetti Salsedo Schiavina Scussel September Sinclair South Braintree Stewart Story Street tion took Torremaggiore town Tresca trial United Valdinoci Villafalletto workers wrote York Youngstown zetti
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Page 4 - grave breach of official decorum" in his derogatory references to the defendants,3 nevertheless concluded that justice had been done. As events moved towards a climax, the case assumed international proportions, engaging the passions of men and women around the globe. Anatole France, in one of his last public utterances, pleaded with America to save Sacco and Vanzetti: "Save them for your honor, for the honor of your children and for the generations yet unborn."4 In vain.