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Boston: A Documentary Novel of the Sacco-Vanzetti Case

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This mammoth book covers the Sacco / Vanzetti trial - probably the most tumultuous trial in the early part of last century. Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian workers who were accused of murdering and stealing money from two payroll carriers in suburban Boston. The story is told through the use of a fictional character named Cornelia, who had lived a life with the rich and elite of Boston. After her husband dies, she wants to live life and takes a tough job in a rope factory. In seeking room and board, she meets and befriends Vanzetti. Experiencing the poor working conditions and associating with Vanzetti, she sees the abuse of the workers by the rich owners and becomes sympathetic to social change.

The story turns tragic, though, when the good-natured Vanzetti and his friend Sacco, are implicated in a burglary. The police seeking a guilty party intimidate and coerce Irish witnesses into telling lies about the pair. The Italians have very little hope once they reach the courtroom, when they learn that the judge is clearly against them. Being poor, they are unable to pay the necessary and customary bribe.

When they are found guilty, other countries and labor leaders throughout the world became angry with Boston. Freedom and the United States' justice system becomes a laughing matter. Ultimately, the police were called in to handle the riots that almost ensued in Boston when the pair of activists was put to death. Even today, there are shadows of doubt over Boston as a result of this trial.

Using part fiction and part history, Upton Sinclair paints a grim portrait of American justice gone awry. Over and over, Sinclair points out where the plaintiff's case was based on non-credible witnesses, a biased judge and jury, hatred of the defendants' socialistic and anarchistic beliefs, and prejudice. While the book was interesting, especially in illuminating the reader of how the system "really" works, I did find it tiring. The book was long and there were a ton of witnesses and characters that the reader had to remember. Sometimes, the same points and facts were repeated two or three times and the story had a tendency to jump around in time. Overall, though, I found the book interesting and absorbing - like all of Sinclair's works that I have read.

Upton Sinclair was a socialist from Baltimore, MD. He wrote many books trying to bring to light the plight of immigrants, and exploited laborers.

In "Boston", Sinclair focuses on the lives of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, two Italian immigrants. Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of robbery and murder in Braintree, MA, with no more evidence against them than the fact that they were Italian. Their execution caused protests in nearly every major city world wide.

So much of this book draws parallels to today. During the early 1900's, it was believed that all Italians were little more than bomb wielding terrorists. At their trial, it was used against them that they weren't "patriotic", because they had dodged the WWI draft. (Which they weren't subject to anyway, because they weren't even US citizens).

I'm from Massachusetts, and found the book particularly interesting in that regard too, to see how things were like in the 1920's. My great-grandfather, Pasquale, was an Italian immigrant who worked with Vanzetti in the Plymouth Cordage Park for a time. It was very interesting, to learn how little he got paid for such dangerous and hard work, and also the challenges he faced as an Italian immigrant.

I think it's very important, that we learn from the past, because these types of prejudices still impede justice today. If you've never heard of Sacco and Vanzetti, or don't know very much about them, you *need* to read this book. The audacity of their trial, and the compelling nature of their story, is one that will stick with you for the rest of your life. It's no wonder that they have inspired so many artists and musicians.

Boston, a novel in two volumes by Upton Sinclair, was first published by Albert & Charles Boni in 1928 and is an historical novel about the well documented Sacco-Vanzetti trials. Written in typical Sinclair fashion, the story weaves through the personal lives and motivations of Sacco and Vanzetti. In his continual search for social justice, this event gives Sinclair another opportunity to decry the social conservatism of the day. The novel presents the reader with a different perspective of this milestone in American jurisprudence.

This book about the Sacco-Vanzetti case is presented here as a novel. It is, however, a novel in which the historic analogies are carefully observed. In reading it one shudders at the similarities between that "red scare", the McCarthy affair and today the erosion under Bush of constitutional rights. It is obvious that the "upper class" is pitted against the "working class". In democratic socialism in which the owners of a concern are the workers (understood as being from the scrub-lady to the CEO. Decidedly stock-owners who do no work but have inherited their wealth are not considered as workers. There is no question that this was a crucial time for the labour movement and for the various parasitic wealthy people who have inherited their wealth and to whom the suffering of their labourers was indifferent. Undoubtedly it is a manifestation of the "class struggle" and of great importance to us in the U.S. today with its leaning more and more to the right. The indifference and even hostility with which in the US the poor are treated and exploited has apparently not changed at all.

Dr. Erich H. Loewy
Prof. & F'dg Chair of Bioethics (emeritus)
University of CA, Davis
11465 Ghirardelli Court
Ranch Cordova, CA 95670
TEL/FAX: 916-635-7555

This book provides an interesting perspective of the justice system. It compares the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, two poor, italian, anachists, to a trial of some of Boston's Blue Blooded elite (fictionalization of a true story). Sinclair never goes so far as to claim Sacco and Vanzetti are innocent (actually one of his biographers claimed that he had his own doubts), only to show that the trial was biased by their social and political views.