Immigrants against the state : Yiddish and Italian anarchism in America

321 Pages·2015·3.67 MB·English

by  Zimmer

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YIDDISH AND ITALIAN ANARCHISM
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Editorial Advisors
James R. Barrett, Julie Greene,
William P. Jones, Alice Kessler-Harris,
and Nelson Lichtenstein
A list of books in the series appears
at the end of this book.
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Publication of this book was supported by a grant
from the University of Texas at Arlington.
© 2015 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015940460
isbn 978-0-252-03938-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-252-08092-0 (paperback : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-252-09743-0 (e-book)
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Transliteration xi
Introduction 1
ChaPter 1. “Yiddish Is My Homeland”:
Jewish Anarchists in New York City 15
ChaPter 2. I Senza Patria: Italian Anarchists in
Paterson, New Jersey 49
ChaPter 3. “All Flags Look Alike to Us”:
Immigrant Anarchists in San Francisco 88
ChaPter 4. “The Whole World Is Our Country”:
Transnational Anarchist Activism and
the First World War 111
ChaPter 5. Revolution and Repression:
From Red Dawn to Red Scare 136
ChaPter 6. “No Right to Exist Anywhere on This Earth”:
Anarchism in Crisis 166
Conclusion: “The Whole World
Is Turned into a Frightful Fortress” 206
Notes 215
Bibliography 253
Index 281

Ustra tIons
Ill
figures
1. Combined Circulations of American
Anarchist Periodicals, 1880–1940 5
2. Combined Circulations of American Yiddish-
and Italian-Language Anarchist Periodicals, 1880–1940 6
3. Cliffo d Berryman, “What to Do with Him
Is the Problem,” 1898 11
4. “A Hebrew Anarchist Meeting at Military Hall,
in the Bowery,” 1892 25
5. Saul Yanovsky, ca. 1920s 33
6. Pedro Esteve, Alberto Guabello, and Franz Widmar, 1900 58
7. Ernesta (Ernestina) Cravello, “Queen of the Anarchists,” 1900 67
8. Ludovico Caminita, 1908 81
9. “Mrs. Gaffe S earing Allegiance to the Anarchist Banner,” 1896 92
10. Anarchist picnic, San Francisco, 1918 100
11 .Postcard from Luigi Parenti to his family, 1916 109
12. “An Outing of Members of the L’Era Nuova Group,” ca. 1919 153
13. Morris Sigman and Fiorello LaGuardia, ca. 1924 170
14. Vincenzo Ferrero and Domenico Sallitto, 1934 189
15. Michele Centrone, 1930s 200
table
1. Deportations under the Anarchist Exclusion Act, 1918–1929 157

ments
Wledg
aCkno
I have been privileged to work with a number of mentors who taught me how
to be a writer, scholar, and historian. I am forever in the debt of the late Steven
Bach, Ron Cohen, Alejandro de la Fuente, Mark Ferrari, Derek Hutchinson,
Jim and Suzanne Jennings, Barry Pateman, David Philips, Miroslava Prazak,
Lara Putnam, the late Beth Ryan, Eileen Scully, Carol Symes, Bruce Venarde,
and Paul Voice, among others. Donna Gabaccia, Patrick Manning, Richard
Oestreicher, and Marcus Rediker deserve special mention for having faith in
this project from the beginning.
I also enjoyed the support and camaraderie of my peers at the University of
Pittsburgh, including Tania Boster, Roland Clark, Isaac Curtis, Niklas Frykman,
Scott Giltner, Bayete Henderson, Mike McCoy, and Lars Peterson. Outside of
academia, I discovered a welcoming community of like-minded friends at the
Big Idea Bookstore and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group. My colleagues at
the University of Texas at Arlington have been generous and supportive, es-
pecially Stephanie Cole, Marvin Dulaney, Bob Fairbanks, John Garrigus, and
Sarah Rose. Laurie Matheson at the University of Illinois Press has long been
a believer in this book.
The research for this project would not have been possible without the aid
of the personnel at the various libraries and archives I have frequented. Above
all, the interlibrary loan departments at the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman
Library and the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries deserve praise for
their hard work. In addition, I thank the staffat the Archives of Labor and Urban
Affairs at Wayne State University; the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome;
the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, Min-
neapolis; the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New
York University; the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; the Emma Goldman
Papers at the University of California at Berkeley; the American Labor Museum