Review by Choice Review
Merriman (Yale), the dean of US historians of 19th-century France, here presents the story of Emile Henry, an anarchist who planted two bombs killing a total of six people in 1890s Paris. Merriman's command of French social history and popular culture is unmatched, and he presents a compelling narrative that intertwines Henry's tragic story with that of other notorious anarchists, such as Ravachol and Auguste Vaillant. Merriman argues that class hatred, widespread corruption, and official indifference to the misery of the poor drove many contemporaries to seek radical change. The author's sympathies are clearly with the down and out, and his presentation conveys a sense of moral ambiguity that, while not justifying anarchist violence, convincingly explains why so many fin-de-siecle French citizens were drawn to the movement. Merriman also makes several intriguing comparisons between the bourgeois French republic's "war on terror" and that of the 21st-century US. He makes the point that anarchists such as Henry and Ravachol actively sought to become martyrs and that official repression only led to "copycat" bombings, while a more conciliatory stance after 1895 made the movement gradually fade away. A well-written, thought-provoking book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. D. A. Harvey New College of Florida
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
A notable scholar of French history, Merriman recounts an episode of terrorism in 1890s Paris that plumbs the motivations of one particular bomber. He was Émile Henry, who at age 20 rejected a potential career in the French army and embraced anarchism. In his narrative, Merriman brings forth biographical elements about Henry his father was active in the Paris Commune, bloodily suppressed in an all-out 1871 class war that illuminate his adoption of a radical outlook. Of an intellectual cast of mind, Henry read anarchist classics by Pyotr Kropotkin, novels by Émile Zola, and volunteered for anarchist newspapers. Anarchism's issue of the day was whether workers' liberation would come by revolutionary word or revolutionary deed; in this debate, Henry came down on the side of deeds, galvanized, Merriman suggests, by two anarchists who went unflinchingly to the guillotine for their bombings. Reconstructing Henry's own attacks, Merriman allies a forensic eye with the texture of Paris de la belle époque, ably renders Henry's personality, and implicitly invites comparison of his with the mind-sets of contemporary terrorists.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Those who think of terrorism as an inexplicable evil produced by an alien culture will have their eyes opened by this fascinating study of 19th-century anarchist terrorists. Yale historian Merriman (History of Modern Europe) tells the story of emile Henry, a well-educated young man from a politically radical family who tossed a bomb into a crowded Paris cafe in 1894. In Merriman's portrait, Henry emerges as an understandable, if not sympathetic, figure-a sensitive dreamer whose outrage at the misery of the poor curdled into a fanatical hatred of bourgeois society. He found a home in Europe's percolating anarchist movement, whose adherents celebrated a cult of revolutionary violence and sang hymns to "Lady Dynamite"; their bombings and assassinations set off a wave of panic and police repression. Merriman's account frames an illuminating study of working-class radicalism in belle epoque France and its bitter conflict with the establishment in an age when class warfare was no metaphor. It's also an absorbing true crime story, with Dostoyevskian overtones, about high ideals that motivate desperate acts. Photos. (Feb. 12) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In the 21st century, we are concerned with economic and social inequalities and rapid technological change-but so were those living in 1890s Europe. With tension building between "haves" and "have-nots," strong anarchist movements had gained momentum there, paving the way, says Merriman, for the tactics used in today's age of modern terror. Merriman (history, Yale Univ.; A History of Modern Europe) leads the reader through a succinct history of anarchism and the rise of dynamite during this period. He uses young anarchist Emile Henry to epitomize this troubled period. Henry was the first individual to use indiscriminate terrorist means (by throwing dynamite into a crowd) to promote a particular social agenda; previously, most acts of violence by anarchists and other groups were directed at the police, heads of state, or the upper classes. Merriman's account complements other sources on the history of terrorism (e.g., Walter Laqueur's History of Terrorism) by putting a human face on this and other anarchist acts. Well told and thoroughly researched at the National Archives of Britain and France, this work is recommended for academic collections or public libraries collecting comprehensively on this aspect of history.-Maria C. Bagshaw, Knowledge & Information Resources, Ecolab, Inc., St. Paul, MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Chronicle of the 1894 bombing of an upscale Parisian caf, which set a deadly pattern for the subsequent quarter-century and beyond. Merriman (History/Yale Univ.; The Stones of Balazuc, 2002, etc.) begins with mile Henry (187294) packing a metal lunchbox with dynamite. "This book is motivated by a very simple question," he writes. "Why did mile Henry do what he did?" The answer involves enormous social and economic inequality that the author sees still flourishing today. Echoing John Edwards, Merriman describes "two citiesthe 'People's Paris' of the east and the increasingly chic neighborhoods of the west." Henry, a young intellectual whose straitened family circumstances prevented him from getting a higher education, was disenchanted with the corrupt bourgeois society he saw around him. He turned to anarchism, a philosophy that declared "whoever lays a hand on me to govern me is a usurper and a tyrant," and advocated violent resistance to the state. There had been anarchist bombings, including one of a police station by Henry, before he threw his handmade explosive into the Caf Terminus on February 12, but their targets had been government officials or the wealthy; this was a random attack on ordinary people. Chased in the streets by a waiter and several passersby, Henry was collared by a doughty gendarme, pummeled and taken to the local police station. He spent his days in custody reading Zola, Dumas, Spencer and Dostoevsky. Even his most bitter opponents, notes Merriman, were impressed by his articulate and confident, even arrogant, speeches during his trial. Nonetheless, judgment was quick, followed by an appointment with the "national razor." Henry became a martyr to those believing in "propaganda by the deed"; one month after his execution, a knife-wielding anarchist killed French president Sadi Carnot. Anarchist attacks on individuals and public places terrorized Europe and America in the years before, during and immediately after World War I. Brisk and well-written, continually directing our attention toward contemporary analogues. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
