American Anarchy of the Early 1900s and The First U.S. War Against Domestic Extremists

Published: Jan. 16, 2024, 11 a.m.

b'In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or private property. Militant and sometimes violent, anarchists were heroes to many working-class immigrants. But to many others, anarchism was a terrifyingly foreign ideology. Determined to crush it, government officials launched a decades-long \\u201cwar on anarchy,\\u201d a brutal program of spying, censorship, and deportation that set the foundations of the modern surveillance state. The lawyers who came to the anarchists\\u2019 defense advanced groundbreaking arguments for free speech and due process, inspiring the emergence of the civil liberties movement.

Today\\u2019s guest is Michael Willrich, author of \\u201cAmerican Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.\\u201d We look at this tumultuous era and parallels with contemporary society.'