American Anarchy of the Early 1900s and The First U.S. War Against Domestic Extremists

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or private property. Militant and sometimes violent, anarchists were heroes to many working-class immigrants. But to many others, anarchism was a terrifyingly foreign ideology. Determined to crush it, government officials launched a decades-long “war on anarchy,” a brutal program of spying, censorship, and deportation that set the foundations of the modern surveillance state. The lawyers who came to the anarchists’ defense advanced groundbreaking arguments for free speech and due process, inspiring the emergence of the civil liberties movement.

Today’s guest is Michael Willrich, author of “American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.” We look at this tumultuous era and parallels with contemporary society.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History and Plug Podcast.
0:07.0	In late 19th and early 20th century America, the group that most people thought were the largest source of terrorist attacks were anarchists.
0:14.7	They were responsible for the Haymarket massacre in 1886 Chicago, when an unknown person
0:19.2	through a dynamite bomb at the police, when they tried to disperse a labor demonstration, or when an
0:23.8	anarchist shot and killed President William McKinley in 1901. In this time
0:27.8	period, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical
0:32.0	vision of a world without states, laws, or private property.
0:35.2	They were militant and sometimes violent, but also heroes to many working-class immigrants.
0:39.6	The US government launched a decades-long war on anarchy to crush these networks,
0:43.5	this involved spying, censorship, and deportation.
0:46.4	Lawyers who came to defend these anarchists,
0:48.8	even though their clients wanted to destroy the foundation of modern law,
0:52.2	put forth arguments for free speech and due process
0:55.0	that inspired the emergence of the Civil Liberties Movement.
0:57.5	In this episode, we're going to look at the most notorious court cases involving anarchists,
1:01.3	the pushback from the US government,
1:02.8	and the tension between chaos and public disorder on the one hand,
1:06.1	and state security and surveillance on the other.
1:08.2	We're joined with today's guest, Michael Wilrich,
1:10.2	author of American Anarchy,
1:11.5	the epic struggle between immigrant radicals and the US government after the dawn of the 20th century.
1:16.0	There's a lot of this discussion that's very contemporary, and I hope you enjoy the senator with Michael Wilrich.
	...

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