The Anarchist Periodical Press in the United States: an Intertextual Study of Prison Blossoms, Free Society, and the Demonstrator
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The Anarchist Periodical Press in the United States: An Intertextual Study of Prison Blossoms, Free Society, and The Demonstrator A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright by Laura Greenwood 2016 Cultural Studies PhD Graduate Program September 2016 ABSTRACT The Anarchist Periodical Press in the United States: An Intertextual Study of Prison Blossoms, Free Society, and The Demonstrator Laura Greenwood This dissertation focuses on the English-language anarchist periodical press in the United States in the 1890s and early 1900s. Each of the three chapters of this dissertation examines one anarchist paper and its coverage of a specific issue. The first chapter focuses on Prison Blossoms, which was started by Alexander Berkman, Carl Nold, and Henry Bauer and written and circulated in the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, and its engagement with Alexander Berkman's attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick. The second chapter examines Free Society, a weekly edited primarily by Abraham Isaak, and its contributors' writings on the assassination of President William McKinley by self- described anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Finally, the third chapter focuses on The Demonstrator, specifically its first volume which was edited by James F. Morton Jr. from the intentional community of Home, Washington, and the paper's work in supporting John Turner, the first anarchist targeted for deportation under the Immigration Act of 1903. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis, this dissertation incorporates examination of the context in which these papers were written (particularly the immediate concerns to which the papers' authors responded), the form and generic conventions of the anarchist press, including the approaches of the papers' respective editors, and the arguments advanced by their authors. It pays particular attention to the intertextuality of ii the anarchist press -- the ways in which those writing in anarchist papers addressed one another both within and across periodicals, generating anarchist thought through conversation and debate and enacting their anarchist ideals in the practice of publishing. This dissertation demonstrates that the anarchist periodical press, an element of anarchist history that has received little attention, offers important insights: it details how anarchists immediately responded to important issues of their time, and reveals the ways in which the emergence of anarchism was itself a collective effort, emerging from conversation, debate, and disagreement about how best to create radical change and what that change should look like. Keywords: anarchism, periodicals, intertextuality, critical discourse analysis, propaganda by deed, free speech movement, Alexander Berkman, Leon Czolgosz, John Turner iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As this dissertation elaborates with respect to the anarchist periodical press, texts draw on past words, respond to contemporaneous words, and anticipate future words; texts are dialogic, dynamic, engaged in conversation. In writing this dissertation, I have benefited tremendously from the support, friendship, and feedback of many people, whose questions, ideas, suggestions have enhanced my work and my thinking. While I am wholly responsible for any of my dissertation's shortcomings, its strengths certainly reflect the feedback I've received from colleagues and friends who have generously engaged with my writing and offered their insights. My advisor, Alan O'Connor, has from the beginning encouraged and supported my interest in writing on the anarchist press; his feedback on my writing from the earliest proposal stages to the dissertation's culmination in defence has made me a better scholar and has tremendously enhanced this work. His support has been invaluable over the many years that we have worked together, and I am grateful for the input he has given me on my work. My committee members Elaine Stavro and Jonathan Bordo have both been exceedingly generous with their time and their willingness to meet with me, to read my work at its various stages of completion, and to ask thought-provoking questions and offer their feedback on my writing. My dissertation is stronger for their insights, and their support has been crucial to my completing this work. Bryan Palmer, who served as the internal examiner for my defence, pressed me to think about a number of important issues related to my work which had, prior to our conversations, not received adequate focus in my writing – I am very grateful for his generous engagement with my work, and know iv that his questions and his suggestions have enhanced my dissertation; they will also significantly enrich the book I hope to develop from the work herein. Jesse Cohn at Purdue University Northwest, who served as external examiner for my defence, has given me much to think about, as his insights have made me think of my work in new ways; I am very grateful for his participation in my defence and his generous feedback on my writing, which will strengthen both my dissertation and my future work. I have long read and appreciated his writings on anarchism, and feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to discuss my work with him. I am thankful to David Holdsworth, who served as the chair for my thesis defence, and to Nancy Legate and Catherine O'Brien who, as the administrative assistants of the Cultural Studies PhD program, have helped me many times over the years. I am also grateful to Julie Herrada, the curator of the Labadie Collection, and to everyone at the Special Collections Reading Room and at the Serials & Microforms Room at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor – their guidance was absolutely crucial to my ability to navigate the archive and to conduct the research at the heart of this project. I am thankful to the communities of the Theory, Culture, and Politics MA Program and the Cultural Studies PhD Program at Trent University, programs which have been my academic home for the duration of my graduate student life. The Cultural Studies faculty have taught me much, and my graduate student colleagues have been very supportive and encouraging throughout the writing of this dissertation. The graduate programs I've been a part of have served as positive environments in which I could pursue interdisciplinary work – I could not imagine having completed this dissertation anywhere else. v Finally, I offer a deeply heartfelt thanks to my friends and family. They have been generous, patient, and encouraging of my work, and have offered me their constant and unconditional support. My family has always encouraged me to pursue my interests and have supported me throughout my time as a graduate student. My friends have listened to my frustrations, celebrated my successes, encouraged me, and kept me smiling. My cat companions, Darryl and Bandit, have kept me company, even making the trip to Ann Arbor for three months, and are always generous with love and cuddles. I am very lucky to have such a strong support network, and without them this dissertation would never have come to fruition; I extend all my gratitude to them. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vii List of Figures viii Introduction 1 Henry Bauer, Alexander Berkman, and Carl Nold's Prison Blossoms: Writing Resistance to Isolation, Writing into The Anarchist Movement I. Prison Blossoms: An Introduction 13 II. The Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania 18 III. “Prison Literature” 31 IV. Prison Blossoms, Genre, Addressivity, and Intertextuality 45 V. Radical Communities & The Anarchist Press 57 VI. Propaganda by Deed and The Debate on Berkman's Act 65 VII. Textual Solidarity: Periodical Press Prison Support 84 Book-Anarchists on Bomb-Anarchists: Free Society, the McKinley Assassination, and the Anarchists' Debate on (Propaganda) Tactics VIII. The Assassination, Press Vilification, and the Stamping Out Craze 91 IX. The Responses of the Anarchist Press 108 X. Free Society: Background and Significance 113 XI. The First Issue Post-Assassination 125 XII. Claiming & Reframing Czolgosz 131 XIII. Violent Tactics: Causes and Impacts 141 XIV. Revolutionary Anarchists vs. Philosophical Anarchists 148 XV. Methods of Propaganda: A Paper "Broad Enough to Include Both" 159 The Defense of John Turner: The Demonstrator's Anarchist Case for Free Speech XVI. The Immigration Act of 1903 and the Arrest of John Turner 170 XVII. Free Speech Law: The Context 179 XVIII. United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams 184 XIX. Responses to Turner's Case 196 XX. The Demonstrator: A Newspaper from Home 202 XXI. Turner as a Civil Disobedient: “He Has Committed No Crime” 217 XXII. Freedom as an American Tradition 225 XXIII. The Demonstrator in Conversation: An Intertexual Struggle 232 Conclusion 243 Bibliography 248 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure I Heading of leaflet distributed by anarchists at Homestead 14 Figure II Political cartoon entitled "Uncle Sam's Next Contract" 96 published in the Denver Post on 16 September 1901 Figure III Free Society's original flag 116 Figure IV First appearance of Free Society's later flag art, published 116 16 February 1902 Figure V The Demonstrator's original flag 209 viii 1 Introduction Many anarchists participated in the publication and circulation of radical periodicals at the turn of the century in the United States; they were editors, printers, authors, or agents, selling