Introduction; 1. The origins of anarchist terrorism; 2. Conspiracies, panics, agent provocateurs, mass journalism, and globalization; 3. International action against subversives: 1815–89; 4. The terrorist '90s and increasing police cooperation: 1890–8; 5. The first International Conference on Terrorism: Rome 1898; 6. 1900: three assassination attempts and the Russo-German Anti-Anarchist Initiative; 7. The murder of President McKinley, 1901; 8. The St Petersburg Protocol, 1901–4; 9. Multilateral anti-anarchist efforts after 1904; 10. The decline of anarchist terrorism, 1900–30s; Appendix; Bibliography.
The first global history of the secret diplomatic and police campaign against anarchist terrorism from 1880 to the 1920s.
Richard Bach Jensen is Professor of History at the Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern State University. He is a recognized authority on the repression of anarchist terrorism and has published widely in the field. His previous publications include Liberty and Order: The Theory and Practice of Italian Public Security Policy, 1848 to the Crisis of the 1890s (1991).
'I cannot imagine a more nuanced and comprehensive history of the
diplomatic efforts of the Great Powers to forge an international
alliance against the threat posed by anarchist terrorism at the
turn of the twentieth century. Jensen's narrative is particularly
judicious in its interpretation as he carefully distinguishes
government responses to events of real, perceived, and manufactured
events of anarchist violence. His account is rooted solidly in
archival evidence, much of it previously unexplored. Careful
readers will perhaps glean lessons for our own twenty-first-century
wars against terrorism.' Martin A. Miller, Duke University, North
Carolina
'This impressive and deeply researched study of the transnational
rise and fall of anarchist terrorism establishes Richard Bach
Jensen as one of our leading historians of political violence.
Charting the symbiotic development of anarchist violence and its
repression by governments world-wide, in the process dispelling
longstanding myths of far flung anarchist conspiracies and
government complots, it is indispensable for anyone struggling to
understand past and present global wars on terrorism.' Mats
Fridlund, Aalto University and University of Copenhagen Center for
Advanced Security Theory
'Employing his remarkable command of foreign languages, Richard
Bach Jensen has scoured archives across Europe and the Americas to
reconstruct the world of diplomats and police involved in the first
global campaign against anarchism. Meticulously researched and
crafted, this book provides an essential historical context for
present debates about appropriate governmental responses to
terrorism.' Mary Gibson, John Jay College and the Graduate Center,
City University of New York
'Well before 9/11 and jihadists, there were anarchists and the fear
they generated in various capitals throughout the world. No single
group in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
engendered as much concern among the power brokers in Europe and
North America as anarchists. Jensen has completed a splendid volume
concerning these radicals … Unknown to many readers, and described
ably by Jensen, were the roles played by the police and
intelligence services, which infiltrated terrorist cells as
informers or as agents provocateurs. A must-read for anyone
interested in the historical evolution of counterterrorism in
modern world history.' Choice
'… [an] impressively researched and readable history … Jensen
combed through police memoirs, newspaper accounts, and diplomatic
archives in no fewer than five languages to track how the besieged
states came to coordinate their antianarchist efforts. He has
meticulously reconstructed two little-known diplomatic initiatives:
an 1898 conference in Rome and the St Petersburg Protocol of 1904
(and helpfully includes their resolutions as an appendix) … the
author suggests that a satisfactory understanding of the rise and
decline of 'propaganda by the deed' requires the history of
policing to be embedded in broader social histories. Jensen makes
some admirable moves in this direction.' The Journal of American
History
'Impressively researched and readable history … The Battle against
Anarchist Terrorism offers insights to historians of the Left, and
perhaps even to contemporary organizers looking to craft strategies
that achieve redistribution and resist recuperation.' Kirwin
Shaffer, American Historical Review
'This is a comprehensive and pioneering study of the multilateral
governmental responses to the fear and reality of anarchist
violence during 1878–1914. Jensen convincingly demonstrates how
official anxieties surrounding 'propaganda of the deed' - political
assassinations conceived as exemplary violence to arouse the masses
from their slumber - fostered secret diplomacy and international
cooperation, reshaped extradition policies and aroused utopian
hopes among some governments of a global anti-anarchist alliance. …
A central achievement of the book is the explanation of why some
nations fared better than others in combatting anarchist violence.
Jensen provides a systematic and extensive analysis of the track
records of different national governments, with a special focus on
Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
Russia, Spain and the US … [This book] is enriched by Jensen's
linguistic skills and his enviable command of various national
archives. Chris Ealham, European History Quarterly
'Jensen has written the definitive work on the subject of European
and, to a lesser extent, American and international government and
police responses to anarchism. Jensen's book rests not only on a
comprehensive knowledge of the scholarly and published primary
literature on anarchism and its foes but also on archival work of
incredible breadth, encompassing the diplomatic and police archives
of Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain, Spain, the United
States, and Argentina, as well as several collections of personal
papers and numerous contemporary newspapers. The book … written in
a lively and clear style, stands as a landmark of careful
scholarship.' Elun Gabriel, The Journal of Modern History
'This is an authoritative and detailed account, based on extensive
historical documents, of the history of the campaigns waged by
American and European police services against anarchist terrorists
from 1878 to the mid-1930s.' Joshua Sinai, Perspectives on
Terrorism
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