Tag Archives: anarchism
Yes, Sadly, It Has Happened Here Before As I write this on Friday afternoon, October 26, 2018, thirteen package bombs have been discovered so far this week, mailed to prominent critics of Donald Trump whom he likes to denounce, disparage, … Continue reading
Bad Day at Braintree In 1920—on today’s date, April 15—the lives of four men changed forever. Fred Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli crumpled and fell in a hail of bullets, mowed down by gunmen who seized the payroll cash the victims … Continue reading
“Agent of Death” for Sacco and Vanzetti
Last year the Innocence Project recorded a milestone. A Louisiana man who had been on death row for fifteen years became the three-hundredth wrongfully convicted person to be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence. But science is not infallible. … Continue reading
Boston’s Other Terrorists?
They were assimilated immigrants, self-radicalized followers of a firebrand philosopher who published bomb-making instructions. So yes, as some have asked: similarities do exist between Sacco and Vanzetti and brothers Tarmelan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Boston Marathon bombing notoriety. Nick Sacco … Continue reading
Indie Gold
In 1927, in his last known letter, Bartolomeo Vanzetti thanked a supporter for his efforts and asked him to study the Sacco-Vanzetti case so that “our fate may…serve as a tremendous lesson.” In Search of Sacco and Vanzetti is, I … Continue reading
Certainly Not a Bright Spot
Certainly Not a Bright Spot January 2, 2013. You and I still have time to make our New Year’s resolutions. On a different January 2, however—January 2, 1920—only one resolution mattered for thousands of people across the United States: the … Continue reading
Six Dollars a Week
Six Dollars a Week The American stories of long-ago immigrants come alive at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on—where else?—New York’s Lower East Side (www.tenement.org). In a gutsy feat of urban archaeology, planners restored 97 Orchard Street to the … Continue reading
Where Bookivores Gather I love ink on paper. On two spectacular fall days last weekend, thousands of others who feel the same way I do turned out for the 2012 National Book Festival. There was something for everyone. More than … Continue reading
Echoes As I remember 9/11 (not that I could ever forget), I also recall 9/16, an earlier day of violence and tragedy in the financial district of New York. Just after noon on September 16, 1920, a huge explosion created … Continue reading