Assassins against the Old Order: Italian Anarchist Violence in Fin de Siecle Europe

History

Pernicone, Nunzio

Ottanelli, Fraser

Europe

University of Illinois Press

The image of the anarchist assassin haunted the corridors of power and the popular imagination in the late nineteenth century. Fear spawned a gross but persistent stereotype: a swarthy "Italian" armed with a bloody knife or revolver and bred to violence by a combination of radical politics, madness, innate criminality, and poor genes. That Italian anarchists targeted--and even killed--high-profile figures added to their exaggerated, demonic image. Nunzio Pernicone and Fraser Ottanelli dig into the transnational experiences and the historical, social, cultural, and political conditions behind the phenomenon of anarchist violence in Italy. Looking at political assassinations in the 1890s, they illuminate the public effort to equate anarchy's goals with violent overthrow. Throughout, Pernicone and Ottanelli combine a cutting-edge synthesis of the intellectual origins, milieu, and nature of Italian anarchist violence with vivid portraits of its major players and their still-misunderstood movement. A bold challenge to conventional thinking, Assassins against the Old Order demolishes a century of myths surrounding anarchist violence and its practitioners.

Historians have frequently portrayed Italian anarchism as a marginal social movement that was doomed to succumb to its own ideological contradictions once Italian society modernized. Challenging such conventional interpretations, Nunzio Pernicone provides a sympathetic but critical treatment of Italian anarchism that traces the movement's rise, transformation, and decline from 1864 to 1892. Based on original archival research, his book depicts the anarchists as unique and fascinating revolutionaries who were an important component of the Italian socialist left throughout the nineteenth century and beyond.Anarchism in Italy arose under the influence of the Russian revolutionary Bakunin, triumphed over Marxism as the dominant form of early Italian socialism, and supplanted Mazzinianism as Italy's revolutionary vanguard. After forming a national federation of the Anti-Authoritarian International in 1872, the Italian anarchists attempted several insurrections, but their organization was suppressed. By the 1880s the movement had become atomized, ideologically extreme, and increasingly isolated from the masses. Its foremost leader, Errico Malatesta, attempted repeatedly to revitalize the anarchists as a revolutionary force, but internal dissension and government repression stifled every resurgence and plunged the movement into decline. Even after their exclusion from the Italian Socialist Party in 1892, the anarchists remained an intermittently active and influential element on the Italian socialist left. As such, they continued to be feared and persecuted by every Italian government.Originally published in 1993.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892 (Princeton Legacy Library, 271)

Princeton University Press

Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892 (Princeton Legacy Library)

Nunzio Pernicone’s biography uses Carlo Tresca’s (1879-1943) storied life?as newspaper editor, labor agitator, anarchist, anti-communist, street fighter, and opponent of fascism?as a springboard to investigate Italian immigrant and radical communities in the United States. From his work on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee, and his assassination on the streets of New York City, Tresca’s passion left a permanent mark on the American map.
This edition, both revised and expanded, provides new insight into the American labor movement and a unique perspective on the immigrant experience.
Nunzio Pernicone is a professor of history at Drexel University.

Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

AK Press

“Pernicone's book is the most comprehensive and balanced study to date of the Italian anarchist movement.”—American Historical Review
Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin nurtured anarchism in Italy, making it the dominant expression of socialism—triumphant over Marxism and all other revolutionary doctrines. From the First International to the 1872 Anti-Authoritarian International, from government suppression and anarchist insurrection to Errico Malatesta's prominent role in resurrecting the anarchist movement, Nunzio Pernicone's original research provides a critical examination of early anarchist practices.
Nunzio Pernicone is an associate professor of history at Drexel University. He is the author of Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel.

Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892

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