It Is Time to Take Another Look at the Italian Anarchist Assassins of the 1890

Nov 19, 2018 480

BY: Alyssa Erspamer

Last week, NYU’s Casa Italiana hosted a Q&A with one author of the book Assassins Against the Old Order: Italian Anarchist Violence in Fin de Siècle Europe(subsequently Assassins Against). The book, “in spite of the current state of things, is not a how to”, joked author Fraser M. Ottanelli at the beginning of the session; instead, the book presents a valuable opportunity, in a time in which our supposed democracy is revealing its more tyrannical side, to reassess acts of rebellion from the last century, and perhaps extend that reflection to today.

Assassins Against re-examines the figure of the Italian anarchist “attentatore” (i.e. assailant) at the end of the 19th century, arguing that until now this figure was unfairly vilified and not adequately contextualized. Ruling European regimes of the time, backed by social scientists in Italy and abroad, had good reason to antagonize the “sleazy” Italians guilty of attacking them, but these figures have not been truly reevaluated in the literature until now. At the time, individual psychology and an international “conspiracy” of anarchist “terrorists” were blamed for the acts of violence.

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SOURCE: https://www.lavocedinewyork.com

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