Pietro Di Paola. The Knights Errant of : London and the Italian Anarchist Diaspora (1880-1917). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013. 256 pp. $99.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-84631-969-3.

Reviewed by Andrew Hoyt

Published on H- (August, 2015)

Commissioned by Matteo Pretelli (University of Naples "L'Orientale")

Anarchists are notoriously difcult subjects to transnational anarchist network.[2] All of these study. They have this reputation for several rea‐ scholars are part of the larger emergence of anar‐ sons: they cloaked their activity in a security cul‐ chist studies as a growing subfeld of research and ture to avoid state persecution, their noninstitu‐ scholarship. Pietro Di Paola’s recent monograph is tional cultural activity was overlooked by social perhaps the most recent example of this exciting historians, and as highly mobile transnational mi‐ and invigorating trend. grants they often disappear from nationally fo‐ Di Paola’s work situates itself at the confu‐ cused narratives. However, recent develops in an‐ ence of several vibrant felds, including transna‐ archist studies have begun to allow tional migration and diaspora studies, labor histo‐ and anarchists to emerge from academic obscuri‐ ry, the history of radicalism, and studies on social ty. For example, work by Jennifer Guglielmo has movements. Or, as he states, “this monograph in‐ highlighted the role anarchist cultural-production tends to contribute to the historiography of dias‐ played in building a diasporic movement, while poric anarchism by exploring practical and ideo‐ Italian language scholars such as Maurizio Anto‐ logical aspects of the Italian anarchists--their ev‐ nioli and Giampietro Berti have laid foundations eryday lives as well as their ideological thought for a new social ’s base mili‐ and its development--in London, one of the most tants.[1] Additionally, work by Davide Turcato has signifcant nodes of the transnational anarchist blended biography and intellectual history to pro‐ network” (p. 5). He places his anarchist migrants, vide a contextual understanding of the lives of ex‐ most of whom were also political exiles, into a iled anarchist thinkers like , larger tradition of Italian exile and diaspora root‐ while scholarship by historians such as David ed in the Risorgimento. Indeed, the exile experi‐ Berry and Constance Bantman has highlighted the ence is central to the book’s emotional core. This importance of particular urban nodes in the is made apparent in the book’s opening quotation H-Net Reviews of Pietro Gori (anarchist poet, musician, play‐ 1871 and the birth of anarchism at the First Inter‐ wright, lawyer, criminologist, and journalist). Gori national Workingmen’s Association. He stresses comments, “It is not easy to leave the loyal com‐ the heavy repression meteed out to anarchiss by rades of the frst struggles, those with whom I Italian politicians such as Francesco Crispi, whom cheerfully shared the harshness of an odyssey, Di Paola describes as unleashing a “wave of vio‐ without a storm of memories and sadness pouring lent repression … on Italian society” (p. 16) in into the heart” (p. 1). Di Paola argues that Gori’s which political repression in Italy surpassed any experience of exile and dislocation was not European nation outside Tsarist Russia and was unique. Rather his experience was shared by a comparable to that invoked by Mussolini decades large number of his fellow Italian anarchists. later. For Di Paola, the Italians--along with Jews and In response to these extraordinary measures Spaniards--were the major vectors for the dissem‐ of state violence, thousands of anarchists fed ination of anarchism transnationally, spreading abroad. Many ended up fnding their way to Lon‐ their ideology not only across Europe but also don, where the liberal British establishment throughout the Americas and the Mediterranean maintained a largely open-door immigration poli‐ basin. Drawing on the works of scholars such as cy and an unwillingness to extradite a person for Donna Gabaccia and Pier Carlo Masini, Di Paola political speech or for anything not considered a focuses on the metropolis of late nineteenth-cen‐ in England. Di Paola writes, “the tradition tury London, a city that has already received of free access was deeply rooted in British culture, some attention from Carl Levy and Hermia Oliver being tightly linked with the idea of free-trade for hosting the most important anarchist thinkers and based on an understanding of the advantages from numerous diferent national groups. Howev‐ of utilizing foreigner’s skills” (p. 18). The British er, Di Paola’s work stands out from previous policy was in fact so welcoming that many Euro‐ scholarship for its close examination of the Italian pean countries such as and Spain began to anarchist colony in London through a transna‐ deport anarchists and other unwanted elements tional lens sensitive to cultural production and so‐ directly to England. Thus many anarchists came cial networks. His breadth and depth are partially to reside in the city on the Thames and it was the result of his combination of British and Italian there that they continued their fght against the sources and partially a result of his ability to syn‐ national governments that had driven them thesize discourses from both the English- and Ital‐ abroad: plotting, raising funds, and printing pro‐ ian-language scholarly communities. Indeed, Di paganda materials to be smuggled back to their Paola’s transnational archival research and his sending communities. Di Paola does an excellent cross-national scholarly engagement combine to job narrating these paths, exploring the govern‐ form a monograph of special quality and insight ment policies and the anarchist reactions. He does that should prove useful to scholars for years to this through the careful use of British police come. records as well as those produced by spies paid The frst two chapters provide street-level de‐ for and dispatched by foreign governments, par‐ tail--mapping and describing the anarchist com‐ ticularly Italy. Indeed the theme of spies animate munity in London and exploring its relationship the book both in the narrative moments of action to the larger Italian immigrant colony. Di Paola and in Di Paola’s source material. starts of tracing the routes exiles took to reach Chapters 3 and 4 explore the major activities London, reminding the reader of the political cli‐ organized by the Italian anarchists, such as mate in Italy following the Paris of demonstrations, conferences, and meetings. But

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Di Paola cannot do this without also exploring tions been assassinated by anarchists, but the some of the major personalities behind these turn to popular organizing and away from indi‐ events, such as Errico Malatesta, who moved the vidual action represented even a greater threat-- printing press for his journal L’Associazione from the , which many saw as “the frst Nice to London in 1889. He also unpacks some of step towards a popular insurrection aiming at the the major conficts, controversies, and arguments destruction of the government” (p. 97). Di Paola that animated the community. In particular he re‐ take us deep into the intellectual world in which veals the major players behind the two ideologi‐ these new politics were coming to shape anar‐ cally dominate strains of anarchism active in the chism in this new century with particular atten‐ city from the 1870s until the outbreak of World tion to important journals such as Lo Sciopero War I: organizational and anti-organizational an‐ Generale. We also see the Italian anarchists at‐ archism. This “great schism” works as the major tempting to emerge from the ethnic ghetto as they narrative structure in the center of book. And engage with British trade unionism and the grow‐ while it is fair to say that Di Paola’s sympathies lie ing power of various state-based and electoral so‐ with Errico Malatesta and the organizationalists, cialist and communist trends. the author does not ignore their ideological rivals. Di Paola takes us through various publication Indeed, groups like Gli Intransigenti di Londra e and propaganda projects, various attempts to or‐ Parigi, L’Anonimato, and La Libera Iniziativa ganize workers and strikes, and several major along with leading fgures such as Vittorio Pini cases of arrest, trial, and state oppression in a pe‐ and Luigi Parmeggiani receive extensive exami‐ riod in which the British government was becom‐ nation. Di Paola looks at their propaganda tactics, ing less tolerant of the many political radicals their “illegalism” and fringe lifestyles (for years housed in its capital city, a change made most Parmeggiani sold counterfeit art to Europe’s elite), clear by the introduction of the Alien Act in 1905. and the biographies of the most noteworthy fg‐ This chapter takes us all the way to the years just ures, just as he does with Malatesta. In fact the before the First World War, when the Italian dias‐ falling-out of individuals, the personal insults and pora was particularly engaged with antimili‐ abuses, and the way ideology and personal associ‐ tarism due to Italy’s increased expansionistic poli‐ ation fracture and turn through the last decade of cy in the Mediterranean, specifcally in Libya. the nineteenth century are particularly well nar‐ Here we see the extent to which Italians abroad rated. This is the section of the book where the were still focused on politics at home. This focus pages seem to become the most inhabited, where on the issues afecting the sending community has intellectual history and biography collide to pro‐ been occasionally used by scholars such as Con‐ duce memorable moments of debate, danger, and stance Bantman to “raise a number of questions recrimination. Di Paola also shows how the con‐ regarding the efectiveness of the anarchist move‐ ficts occurring in the anarchist clubs of London ment in achieving its international ideals,” an ac‐ afected propaganda tactics and ideological devel‐ cusation Di Paola responds to by arguing that “if opment abroad and how events abroad had re‐ the anarchists failed to develop an ‘institutional verberations in the London colony. internationalism’, they defnitely created a dis‐ By the end of the nineteenth century, the de‐ tinctive subversive culture and self-conscious ide‐ bate between organizationalists and anti-organi‐ ology which helped them to feel part of an imag‐ zationalists was dying down, and as the Giolitti ined transnational community” (p. 9). government liberalized trade-union legislation It would be natural to follow this chronologi‐ anarchists turned increasingly to labor organiz‐ cal narrative directly into the start of the First ing. Not only had the heads of many European na‐

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World War, which tore apart the world in which tween refugees of diferent nationalities and the anarchism had grown and drove anarchists into establishment of links with British radicalism” (p. opposing camps regarding intervention. However, 161). before exploring the impact of the war on anar‐ Di Paola goes on to give us details on diferent chism, Di Paola spends a chapter examining the boarding houses and soup kitchens and descrip‐ surveillance of the Italian anarchists by the tions of what life was like in these spaces; he nar‐ British and Italian states. This move, while break‐ rates approaches to the clubs down narrow alleys, ing with the chronological fow that dominates the security measures employed at the door. He most of the book, highlights a phenomenon that also explores the way these spaces were described all the previous chapters have already made in the mainstream press and the lurid and emo‐ clear--the anarchists were watched obsessively by tive descriptions of anarchist women and the gen‐ numerous governments and their informers. Di eral discourse about the clubs that circulated in Paola has used these sources in all the early chap‐ more respectable circles. Di Paola concludes that ters but it is in chapter 5 that he fnally explores the clubs “played a signifcant role in the dissemi‐ the actual functioning of these police systems. He nation of anarchist ideas and forms of organiza‐ names the informants and provides biographical tion. They provided a home away from home: background; he explores their motivations (politi‐ havens for refugees who often felt shut out from cal and fnancial), their various rates of success, English life … the clubs were at the heart of the and their competitions. Indeed, while Italian spies experience of anarchist exiles in London” (p. 183). occasionally collaborated with the British, at After this foray into cultural history the au‐ times diferent Italian policing groups actually thor returns, in the last chapter of his book, to the competed with each other. end of his chronological exploration of Italian an‐ In chapter 6, Di Paola turns to a cultural histo‐ archists in London. He ends with World War I be‐ ry of anarchist spaces, focusing on the politics and cause, he argues, by the end of the war most of sociability of their clubs which dominated the an‐ the major anarchist organizers such as Errico archist colony in London, noting that the anar‐ Malatesta had left England all together. The chist refugees in England and in other centers of breakup of the London node is insightfully narrat‐ the political diaspora developed “an extensive ed by Di Paola with a detailed focus on the divide and elaborate social infrastructure that contrib‐ that exploded between interventionist and an‐ uted to produce a distinctive subculture and com‐ timilitarist anarchists. Led by , the munity” (p. 157). Building on the work of scholars Russian intellectual and long-time grandfather such as Marcella Bencivenni, Di Paola argues for fgure of the movement, anarchists such as Jean the importance of cultural production in the anar‐ Grave supported the war against German aggres‐ chist milieu.[3] As he explored the theater, music, sion, which they feared would spread a right- and festival life of the London colony we are wing reaction across the European continent. Op‐ aware of the hidden currents of doubt, suspicion, posed to them, Errico Malatesta and others ar‐ and confict that animated its underbelly. He ex‐ gued against any national war project, staying amines the role women played (notably in the true to their belief that the only just war is class drama societies), and explores the libraries and war. This debate deeply divided the community. the educational projects initiated by the anar‐ This confict contributed to the end of the great chists, stating that “clubs were essential instru‐ era of Italian anarchism in London. Di Paola is ments of organization, but they accomplished oth‐ careful to note that Italian anarchist did not com‐ er functions as well. From the 1870s, anarchist pletely disappear from the United Kingdom, and clubs bolstered both the creation of a network be‐

4 H-Net Reviews important Italian anarchists such as Vernon Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the Richards and Marie Louise Berneri remained ac‐ World, ed. Donna Gabaccia and Franca Iacovetta tive in the 1920s and 1930s--organizing against (Toronto; Bufalo: University of Toronto Press, fascism and supporting the Spanish Republic’s 2002); Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the : fght against Franco. Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in Di Paola follows his text with a delightful col‐ New York City, 1880-1945 (Chapel Hill: University lection of biographies of his major players that of North Carolina Press, 2010); Maurizio Anto‐ helps the reader recall many of the stories he has nioli, Giampietro Berti, and Pasquale Iuso, eds., explored in his dense scholarly work. If there are Dizionario Biografco Degli Anarchici Italiani, vol. any detractions to be made it is that these biogra‐ 1: A-G (Pisa: Biblioteca Franco Serantini, 2003); phies are not used more systematically, that we do Maurizio Antonioli, Giampietro Berti, and not get more statistical social history in terms of Pasquale Iuso, Dizionario Biografco Degli Anar‐ the composition of base militants who made up chici Italiani, vol. 2: I-Z (Piza: Biblioteca Franco the movement, of their professions and lives, Serantini, 2004). sending communities, and family networks. Also, [2]. Davide Turcato, Making Sense of Anar‐ the various maps Di Paola presents his audience chism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revo‐ with do not show change over time. It would have lution, 1889–1900 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmil‐ been useful to be given more than static images of lan, 2012); David Berry and Constance Bantman, the anarchist scene in London, and those interest‐ eds., New Perspectives on Anarchism, Labour and ed in more complex readings of city-space and : The Individual, the National and the map-based argumentation may be left wanting. Transnational (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cam‐ Regardless, Di Paola’s exhaustive use of archival bridge Scholars Publishing, 2010); Constance sources produced both by the anarchists them‐ Bantman, The French Anarchists in London, selves and by the various national police who 1880-1914: Exile and Transnationalism in the watched them from the shadows makes the book First Globalisation (Liverpool: Liverpool Universi‐ a gem of primary source research. Di Paola has ty Press, 2013). provided the feld of with an in‐ [3]. Marcella Bencivenni, Italian Immigrant valuable base for understanding their Italian- Radical Culture: The Idealism of the Sovversivi in speaking world in London. He has brought togeth‐ the United States, 1890-1940 (New York: NYU er sources from archives in multiple countries in Press, 2011). a way that refects not only on the anarchists but on the policing states that meticulously gathered data on their lives and actions. This book should be considered essential reading for anyone inter‐ ested in late nineteenth- or early twentieth-centu‐ ry political culture, anarchism, and migration as well as anyone attempting to do transnational studies of social movements in general or the policing of such movements by state systems. Notes [1]. Jennifer Gugliemo, “Italian Women’s Pro‐ letarian in the New York City Garment Trades, 1890s-1940s,” in Women, Gender and

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Citation: Andrew Hoyt. Review of Di Paola, Pietro. The Knights Errant of Anarchy: London and the Italian Anarchist Diaspora (1880-1917). H-Italy, H-Net Reviews. August, 2015.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=44764

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