Sacco and Vanzetti [Paperback]

Paul Avrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1996

The 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."

Editorial Reviews

Review

[Avrich] uses Italian sources to situate Sacco and Vanzetti within the immigrant anarchist culture they devoted their lives to advancing. This emphasis differentiates his book from those that preceded it and constitutes his signal achievement.... In placing Sacco and Vanzetti in this anarchist movement, Avrich greatly expands our understanding of them and their circle. -- Nick Salvatore, The New York Times Book Review



Reading [Sacco and Vanzetti] is like listening to a seasoned virtuoso musician whose performance seems effortless in its brilliance. [It] will be as compelling to the uninitiated student as to the sophisticated scholar of anarchism. -- Candace Falk, The Journal of American History



Avrich does away with the picture of innocent, hapless, working-class immigrants brutalized by the state. Sacco and Vanzetti were clearly victimized, but they were also militant anarchists, part of a small circle that preached and practiced revolutionary violence. Avrich relates their story with intelligence, grace and drama. -- Martin Blatt, The Nation



The Sacco and Vanzetti case may never be fully resolved; but we have Paul Avrich to thank for bringing us tantalizingly close to the conclusion of a fascinating story. -- George Esenwein, San Francisco Review of Books

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (February 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691026041
• ISBN-13: 978-0691026046
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!, November 30, 1998

By 

daibhidh "daibhidh" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacco and Vanzetti (Paperback)

Paul Avrich has made a career out of anarchist history -- anarchistory, I suppose you'd call it. He's an excellent writer and this book is a welcome addition to his series. The title is a little misleading, as Sacco and Vanzetti, who were executed in the late 20's in one of the most controversial criminal cases of this century, aren't really dealt with too much.

What is dealt with are the Galleanists, the followers of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani, who really framed American anti-radical policy (unintentionally) by way of a series of bombings that occurred in 1919 and 1920. These bombings offered the government the pretext for the unlawful series of police actions called the "Red Scare". These events are important even today because they framed American policy toward domestic leftist radicalism, much of which remains in force today.

The book follows the lives (and deaths) of many Italian anarchists, including Galleani himself, and is a fascinating exploration of their lives and their anarchist subculture at a time when anarchism was on the wane everywhere except Spain.

To the modern anarchist, the book offers as much of a sense of what anarchism shouldn't be as what it used to be. The Galleanist use of bombs did anarchism a considerable disservice as it gave the press something sensational to latch onto -- even today, some 70 years later, people still link anarchism with bombs. This is a direct offshoot of the Galleanists' activities, as explored in this book.

Avrich has a very readable writing style, and the book is jam-packed with historical references and interesting stories. Like all of his anarchist books, this one is worth your time.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Anarchist as a Human Being, July 24, 2003

By 

D. Morgan (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacco and Vanzetti (Paperback)

Avrich's book is extraordinary as an account of the varied principle protagonists in the Italian Anarchist circles of 80 years ago, though it provides only a historical account of the characters without a perspective of history's judgment. The only reason I give the book 4 stars instead of 5 is that Sacco and Vanzetti are almost minor characters, popping up now and then amongst Galleani, Malatesta, Buda, Salsedo, et al, though their story and their fate is symbolic of the entire movement: All were relatively ordinary people who despised governments, and in turn were wiped off the face of America by ours. Avrich gives rich detail into the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti as well as all of the other mad bombers running around New York and Boston. The story of "Ella", the dynamite courier, with a side dish of Emma Goldman sharing her prison cell for a while, is superb. If you're an Anarchist fan, or maybe even a real Anarchist, Avrich is your man for history of the movement.
As a side note, read this book on an airplane some time and see how many people sitting next to you ask you what it's about. As significant as S&V were in American 20th Century history, their names are lost now to anyone but an Anarchist or the occasional college student doing required reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, September 8, 2009

By 

Sheila Dreckman (Potosi, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacco and Vanzetti (Paperback)

I read another book about Sacco and Vanzetti which is very good. This one, however, is great. It is well organized, and, while the other book spent a good portion of the book on the trial, in this one you got to understand better who these anarchists were. It is not biased either for or against their conviction. Extremely well written.