"Whether an anarchist"

[KC]

Something interesting I came across while doing some research that I thought some of our forum anarchists might enjoy. If you click on the image and zoom in, the 27th box asks incoming immigrants "whether [they are] anarchist[s]." I've never seen one of these where someone actually responded with a 'yes,' and it's amusing how naïve that question seems. Clearly anarchists were considered a serious threat at the beginning of the twentieth century, something that is obvious to anyone who's ever read anything by G. K Chesterton or other popular writers of that period.

[Mister D]

Something interesting I came across while doing some research that I thought some of our forum anarchists might enjoy. If you click on the image and zoom in, the 27th box asks incoming immigrants "whether [they are] anarchist[s]." I've never seen one of these where someone actually responded with a 'yes,' and it's amusing how naïve that question seems. Clearly anarchists were considered a serious threat at the beginning of the twentieth century, something that is obvious to anyone who's ever read anything by G. K Chesterton or other popular writers of that period.

You like Chesterton? He was friends with Hilaire Belloc who was another prolific Catholic writer.

Anyway, yeah, that was part of the first Red Scare. That was the era of Sacco and Vanzetti.

[KC]

You like Chesterton? He was friends with Hilaire Belloc who was another prolific Catholic writer.

Anyway, yeah, that was part of the first Red Scare. That was the era of Sacco and Vanzetti.

I liked The Man Who Was Thursday a lot. Got Manalive and never got into it. I used to read a lot of C.S. Lewis and anything that appeared insightful about religion.

Yeah, and Anarchists were tossed in the mix along with communists. Plausibly the role many anarchists played in the Russian Revolution also played a role in the public's fears. It's funny the degree to which the perception of anarchists has changed, at least to the well-informed, partly in thanks to figures like Murray Rothbard.

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[Chris]

D already mention ed Aug. 23, 1927 | Sacco and Vanzetti Executed in Boston:

The crime and trial occurred during a time in American history referred to as the “Red Scare,” and was “marked by numerous labor strikes, widespread fear of radicals, and a series of bomb attacks against government officials.” World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia led to building anti-immigrant sentiment a strong prejudice against those espousing “radical ideas of anarchism, communism, or socialism.”

It seems a natural reaction to revolutionary anarchy that wants to tear down the existing social order.

[Mister D]

Undoubtedly the political violence in the Russian Empire played a role and leading one, IMO. Nihilists, anarchists, and communists often used violence to effect change. Americans rightly feared that immigrants will naturally bring new ideas with them. Whenever this was brought up in class it was always presented as something irrational. That says more about our own times than it does the early 20th Century.

[KC]

Undoubtedly the political violence in the Russian Empire played a role and leading one, IMO. Nihilists, anarchists, and communists often used violence to effect change. Americans rightly feared that immigrants will naturally bring new ideas with them. Whenever this was brought up in class it was always presented as something irrational. That says more about our own times than it does the early 20th Century.

I think that's true of a lot of historical construction. We may do our best to remove our modern biases but I think it's often a failure.

[Mister D]

I think that's true of a lot of historical construction. We may do our best to remove our modern biases but I think it's often a failure.

Agreed. The most we can do is remain conscious of it.

[Mister D]

That manifest is pretty neat.

[KC]

That manifest is pretty neat.

Isn't it? I discovered how useful they were while doing some personal research on my family history. Another interesting thing was that nearly all of the passengers were meeting up with a husband or father who had already come to the United States and worked here long enough to pay for the rest of his family's voyage. The same was apparently true of my own great-grandad, who left a government job in Galicia for a job working for Pullman railroad company in Chicago.

[Mister D]

Isn't it? I discovered how useful they were while doing some personal research on my family history. Another interesting thing was that nearly all of the passengers were meeting up with a husband or father who had already come to the United States and worked here long enough to pay for the rest of his family's voyage. The same was apparently true of my own great-grandad, who left a government job in Galicia for a job working for Pullman railroad company in Chicago.

Interesting! What kind of job did he do in Galicia? When did he arrive? Prior to 1918 he would have have been working for the Hapsburgs.