September 11, 2001 is a day no American will forget, especially if you lived in the city of New York. That is what we all say and believe when these horrible acts happen. But how many remember the terrorist bombing on Wall Street that happened in 1920. It is in our nature to forget the bad and put it out of our mind, even if it takes a century to do so. Since the invention of dynamite there has always been acts of terror by anarchist that have done great damage to large amounts of people and property. Of course terrorism in one form or another has always existed in every situation, but dynamite allowed a "common man" to do a great deal of damage.

So yes we do forget these horrible events and are forced too relive history. Though this book starts off with the 1920 Wall Street Bombing and the not so thorough investigation of the bombing is an ongoing theme for the book. The author has really chosen to use this large bombing to write social structure of the anarchist against every government in the world and communist parties against the U.S Government all with the socialist trying to not be associated with there violent actions and stay a viable political party. And shows how most of the anarchist where originally deported from Russia and Europe to the Land of the Free through New York.

New York then as now is considered the heart, even if symbolically, of Capitalism. So that seems to always be the target of terrorist when they feel they want to strike at the U.S.A. Regardless of year. It shows then as now politicians tried to use this tragedy where we have the loss of innocent lives for political gain.

Gage does a very thorough job on relating the history of terrorism in the United States that occurred in the late 1800's that that lead up to the 1920 Wall Street bombing. I feel I should tell you I love reading history books and found this one quite compelling. Though she is writing about a complex event that took place almost a century ago it read as if we were following the events in real time. She goes into some great detail though I am sorry to say many references had to come from News paper clippings; and as we know all papers have their own agenda. As is needed in this kind of book, the author has gone to great extent to document her book with footnotes. I would expect no less from any history book from Oxford Press.

I enjoyed reading this work of good scholarly writing. But if you are not use to reading books by historians you may find it a little hard to read. And though the book is about the bombing and the investigation, it could be subtitled 'A Study of the Socialist and Anarchist movement in the early part of the 20th century'. All in all I enjoyed the book and its attention to detail. ( )

Anarchists, Terror, and Class Warfare

This is a highly readable, thoroughly engaging book about one of the more important movements and suppressed memories in US history. Class warfare is usually relegated to the European context, but as Beverly Gage shows, it was comprehensive and pervasive in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Free of academic jargon and social science babble, Gage is a great story-teller chronologically detailing the events that lead up to the bombing, the investigation, and the aftermath. Throughout, are wonderful anecdotes about the McNamara affair in Los Angeles, wobblies in the pacific northwest, and the follies of investigators who made a mockery of the justice system.

If you enjoyed Mike Davis's book "Buda's Wagon", you'll enjoy this more in-depth well-researched thesis turned book about one of the lesser known events in US history. ( )

On a mid-September day an explosion rips through the financial district of Manhattan in the most devastating terrorist attack in American history up to that point. The attack is attributed to people who come from outside the country and subscribe to an ideology that its critics say is anti-American. This all sounds very familiar, but the story here takes place on September 16th, 1920 when an explosion at the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street rocked the House of Morgan and the New York Stock Exchange. The day Wall Street exploded : a story of America in its first age of terror (2009) by Beverly Gage captures the events of that day as well as the events leading up to that day and its repercussions.

The explosion, graphically detailed in this work, was part of a series of violent acts with Anarchists, Socialists, & labor activists on one side and industrialists, police and private detectives on the other side. Gage summarizes the history of radical violence dating to the Haymarket affair in 1886 and the subsequent execution of numerous radicals not actually proven to have anything to do with the bombings. Subsequent events include the Homestead strike, the Ludlow Massacre, assassination attempts on Henry Frick, John D. Rockefeller and Jack Morgan, the successful murder of President McKinley by an anarchist, bombing of the Los Angeles Times office, and the Red Scare. The cast of characters include proponent of violence Johann Most, anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, labor activist Bill Haywood and socialist Eugene Debs. The story of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolemo Vanzetti also ties into the Wall Street Bombing with some theorists today believing they had a direct involvement.

The investigation of the bombing is presented as something of mystery with FBI agents, private detectives, and New York City police all attempting to be the first to solve the crime with none succeeding. Many anarchists, socialists, and immigrants are rounded up with a good portion deported, but the bomber is never found. Some wonder if there really was a bomb or if it was an accidental explosion of dynamite destined for a construction site.

This is is an excellent and informative history of an overlooked period in American history. Gage writes that the ultimate demise of the radical movement in the 1920s as well as the House of Morgan/NYSE "business as usual" approach in the aftermath of the bombing have contributed to the absence of this era from many history books. ( )