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The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siècle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror, by John Merriman
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The fascinating story of a long-forgotten "war on terror" that has much in common with our own
On a February evening in 1894, a young radical intellectual named �mile Henry drank two beers at an upscale Parisian restaurant, then left behind a bomb as a parting gift. This incident, which rocked the French capital, lies at the heart of The Dynamite Club, a mesmerizing account of Henry and his cohorts and the war they waged against the bourgeoisie—setting off bombs in public places, killing the president of France, and eventually assassinating President McKinley in 1901.
Paris in the belle �poque was a place of leisure, elegance, and power. Newly electrified, the city’s wide boulevards were lined with posh department stores and outdoor caf�s. But prosperity was limited to a few. Most lived in dire poverty, and workers and intellectuals found common cause in a political philosophy—anarchism—that embraced the overthrow of the state by any means necessary.
Yet in targeting civilians to achieve their ends, the dynamite bombers charted a new course. Seeking martyrdom, believing fervently in their goal, and provoking a massive government reaction that only increased their ranks, these "evildoers" became, in effect, the first terrorists in modern history.
Surprising and provocative, The Dynamite Club is a brilliantly researched account that illuminates a period of dramatic social and political change—and subtly asks us to reflect upon our own.
- Sales Rank: #720222 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Published on: 2009-02-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .88" h x 5.80" w x 8.42" l, .89 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 224 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Starred 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 �mile Henry, a well-educated young man from a politically radical family who tossed a bomb into a crowded Paris cafe in 1894. In Merrimans 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 Europes 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. Merrimans account frames an illuminating study of working-class radicalism in belle �poque France and its bitter conflict with the establishment in an age when class warfare was no metaphor. Its also an absorbing true crime story, with Dostoyevskian overtones, about high ideals that motivate desperate acts. Photos. (Feb. 12)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
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 �mile 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 �mile 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 �poque, ably renders Henry’s personality, and implicitly invites comparison of his with the mind-sets of contemporary terrorists. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
Praise for The Dynamite Club
"In The Dynamite Club, John Merriman brings together his astonishing knowledge of nineteenth-century France, his unmatched skills as an archival ‘detective,’ his marvelously lucid writing style, and his uncanny talent for bringing historical figures to life. The result is a searing portrait of the tensions and violence that lurked behind the glittering fa�ade of fin-de-si�cle France and eerily foreshadowed the terrorist threat of the present day." — David Bell, author of The Cult of the Nation in France and The First Total War
"Those who think of terrorism as an inexplicable evil produced by an alien culture will have their eyes opened by this fascinating study of nineteenth-century anarchist terrorists . . . [An] absorbing true crime story, with Dostoyevskian overtones, about high ideals that motivate desperate acts." — Publishers Weekly, starred review
"John Merriman has told an absorbing story of the strange world of anarchism in late-nineteenth-century France. Replete with uncanny and uncomfortable similarities to the ‘war on terrorism’ today, The Dynamite Club portrays a society swept up in the fear of bombers who are certain that they are achieving immortality for a righteous cause. This saga of �mile Henry and his motley crew of fellow anarchists is hard to put down." — David Kertzer, author of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and Amalia’s Tale
“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 �mile Henry, who at age 20 rejected a potential career in the French army and embraced anarchism…Reconstructing Henry’s own attacks, Merriman allies a forensic eye with the texture of Paris de la belle �poque, ably renders Henry’s personality, and implicitly invites comparison of his with the mind-sets of contemporary terrorists.” (Booklist 2009-01-01)
"Merriman leads the reader through a succinct history of anarchism and the rise of dynamite during this period...[his] account complements other sources on the history of terrorism by putting a human face on this and other acts. Well told and thoroughly researched..." (Library Journal 2008-12-01)
"Reading a book on nineteenth-century anarchism by John Merriman is a bit like reading one on the semicolon by Strunk and White. Merriman’s A History of Modern Europe (1996) is perhaps the best survey of the era, but by narrowing his scope from five hundred years of Continental history to a few bomb-throwing anarchists in Belle Epoque France, he is able to pack in riveting detail. " (Bookforum 2009-02-01)
"Brisk and well-written, continually directing our attention toward contemporary analogues." (Kirkus Reviews 2008-12-01)
"Questioning why terrorists attack people like us may lead to answers that call for us to examine our own roles in creating and maintaining the social, economic or political conditions that give rise to terrorist acts. This examination is what makes The Dynamite Club so important. Merriman demythologizes �mile Henry and the loosely organized international group of anarchist thinkers who inspired and supported him. Merriman also comments, without being heavy-handed, on the conditions European anarchists were trying to change." (Texas Observer 2009-01-09)
"Merriman paints a fascinating picture of the anarchist underworld, giving real-life background to a milieu made famous by novels such as Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday." (Barnes and Noble Review 2009-02-23)
"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." (San Francisco Examiner 2009-02-08)
"Yale historian John Merriman does many things in "The Dynamite Club," his book about the bombing, and does them quite well...In describing the fate of a single terrorist, Merriman has skillfully illustrated how social alienation fueled the rise of extremist ideas and acts. The lethal impulses that motivated Henry aren't so different, the author concludes, from the impulses that lead to terrorism today. This accessible account is historically eye-opening and psychologically insightful." (The Boston Globe 2009-02-26)
"Written with elegant brevity, The Dynamite Club is a reminder of an era when violent anarchists acted out their hatred against a repressive civilization." (The Shepherd Express 2009-04-01)
"Gripping as a narrative, necessary as a historical lesson, Merriman's "The Dynamite Club" reads like a great novel -- all in the service of bringing novel insight into the birth of modern terrorism." (Minneapolis Star Tribune 2009-04-14)
"In The Dynamite Club, his enthralling and cinematic account of a Paris cafe bombing in 1894, Merriman achieves that rare thing: virtuosic storytelling that doubles as superb history." (Chicago Tribune 2009-05-16)
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
The Dynamite Club
By Stephen Balbach
John Merriman, professor of history at Yale and author of the classic undergraduate text A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present, has been called America's best living historian of France. Born and raised in Oregon, he has lived in France on and off much of his life and is skilled at bridging the cultural divide. In our current "age of terror" it is illuminating to remember that for about a 15-20 year period during the "fin-de-siecle" (end of the 19th century), Paris was gripped by a wave of Anarchist Dynamite bombers. The central story of this book is about one of those Dynamiters, Emile Henry, the first terrorist to bomb anonymous otherwise innocent civilians and, according to the subtitle, "ignite the modern age of terror."
`The Dynamite Club` is a small package (216pg, 8.5" book) but, like the subject of its title, packs a wallop amount of information. Using the creative non-fiction technique of writing history through telling the narrative story of a central hero (or anti-hero in this case), it is a biography of Emile and the bombing and its aftermath - and also the larger story of Anarchism in the 19th century. We learn about the underground world of Paris and London, teeming with hungry, unemployed and angry youth, the revolutionary intellectuals who inspired them and the state enforcement that emerged with them. Merriman not only dug deep into the archives, he traveled to the locations involved (some still in business), even retracing the steps of Emile Henry through the streets of Paris the day of his bombing, clocking the amount of time it took to verify his story (luckily traffic in Paris today is so bad, travel resembles the speed of 19th century horse and carriage).
This is a really fascinating and accessible introduction to the world of 19th century Anarchism - one of the defining characteristics of fin-de-siecle Europe. Merriman is a serious historian and I had trouble finding anything that appeared embellished, unfortunately so common with journalist-historians these days writing for a popular audience. Merriman teaches a course at Yale called "France since 1871" (18hrs, 24 classes). It has been video recorded and is freely available online for anyone to watch (see link in the Comment below). Merriman is a dynamic and fun teacher to watch. The first 12 or so classes are about France between 1871 and 1914 and it is a great introduction to everything "fin-de-siecle". Lecture 8 in particular is called "Dynamite Club: The Anarchists", and was recorded while he was working on this book.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Dynamiting to End Society
By Rob Hardy
It might make headlines when some nightclub or hotel is bombed, but such headlines might not even make it onto the front page these days, for unfortunately such occurrences are frequent. This sort of terrorism was new and startling in 1894 when a bomber attacked the Caf� Terminus in Paris. It may not have been the very first incidence of modern terrorism, but it was part of a new type of attack on society. Such attacks could not have happened without dynamite or without philosophical and social underpinnings. A wealth of details about such larger issues, and about that particular bombing, is set out with impressive clarity in _The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Si�cle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror_ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Yale historian John Merriman. It was �mile Henry who executed the attack, and Merriman writes, "This book is motivated by a very simple question: why did �mile Henry do what he did?" It was a long time ago, and in a foreign society with different bad guys than we have now, but it is bracing to have Merriman as a guide to a frightening act which introduced the world to a completely new type of threat, one which came from an individual who was not completely an outsider and not completely mad.
Henry grew up within the anarchist philosophy, but Merriman makes clear that the wide inequalities between rich and poor at the time made such a philosophy seem tenable: "In short, the belle �poque was not _belle_ for most French men and women, who had little reason for optimism and great concern for the future." Henry won prizes for excellence in school, but as he became older, he was obsessed with the grinding poverty in Paris; his sympathies were always with the jobless and hungry. Most anarchists were not interested in violence, and many rejected the bombings that were called "propaganda by the deed." Even Henry initially rejected the use of dynamite, but later accepted it as a way of destroying even the bourgeoisie who kept the state going. There were dynamite attacks in Paris in 1892, and Parisians worried about an international dynamite club. As befits anarchists, however, there was no such organization, and the dynamite club was only as real as the worried imaginations of officials could make it. Merriman describes Henry's bombing of the Caf� Terminus as the first time a political terrorist had used ordinary people as a specific target. Henry was caught as he fled, and met the guillotine in May 1894. The French government passed outrageous laws in overreaction to the threat of the imaginary dynamite club, and Merriman explains how police informers arranged for hundreds of people to be arrested with meager convictions resulting.
Merriman is wise in seldom drawing parallels to modern terrorism, which chiefly comes not from those who would abolish governments but who would set up strict religious ones. Anyone reading about the overreaction of the French government, however, will be dismayed that our contemporary terrorists have led us into an unnecessary war, restrictions on rights, and state-sponsored torture. Merriman's accessible history usefully illustrates how over a hundred years ago activists responding to social alienation and socioeconomic inequities brought forth extremist acts that triggered unnecessary paranoia rather than a coherent judicial response. Anarchism is pass�, but the bombing never stops.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A dynamite of a book!
By Paul Gelman
The terrorists of these days had some good teachers and precursors in the past.These were the anarchists of the nineteenth century whose purpose was to bring to a radical change of the world order.The state was regarded by them as something evil which,in Proudhon's words,"is my enemy.To be governed is to be watched,inspected,spied upon,directed,law-driven,numbered,regulated,enrolled,indoctrinated,preached at,controlled,checked,estimated, valued,censured,commanded by creatures who have neither the right not the wisdom or virtue to do so".Anarchism was a reaction to the rapidly expanding power of governments following the creation of nation-states in the nineteenth century.Expanding bureaucracies,police forces,amd armies manifested power.Anarchists were confident that a new,improved society could exist one day,but they believed that violent revolution was a prerequisite, in contrast to those adherents who preached for socialism.Most of the anarchists were far from being intellectuals.But the hero of this book was different,because he was a middle-class youn educated man who might have enjoyed a productive life,were it not for his father's treatment at the hands of the state, exarcerbated by the appalling poverty that he witnessed in Paris.
One day,on a February evening of 1894,Emile Henry drank two beers at a Parisian restaurant,then left behind a bomb.What follows is a most intriguing tale of suspense and history of anarchism before,during and after Henry's deed.The French society like many other European ones,was extremely anxious,living in constant fear of bombers who were certain they were achieving immortality for a very good cause.Suffice it to remind the reader about the murders of the Spansi prime minister Canovas in 1897,Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary in 1898,and the American president William McKinley in 1901.
This excellent book traces the thoughts and deeds of Henry,his trial and his execution and is a major contribution to the history of anarchism.It allows the novice to this topic to get acquainted with the world these anarchists wanted to get at and discusses in detail the work of the Paris police.We also have a very good description about another center where those anarchists were to be found-London.In targeting civilians to achieve their ends,the dynamite bombers charted a new course which managed to change the way the internal security forces in the various states started to view them.
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