8. Dynamite Club: The Anarchists

France Since 1871 (HIST 276)
Anarchists, unlike syndicalists and other leftists, seek to destroy the state rather than to capture state power for themselves. Emile Henry and other late nineteenth-century radicals inaugurated the modern practice of terrorism in their individualism and their indiscriminate choice of civilian targets. Despite the terrifying consequences of individual acts of terrorism, these pale in comparison to the consequences of state terrorism.
00:00 - Chapter 1. The Roots of Anarchism: Founders and the French Context
12:59 - Chapter 2. The Legacy of Ravachol
18:51 - Chapter 3. The Story of Émile Henry: The Individualist Anarchist
39:10 - Chapter 4. Henry's Deed: The Bomb and the Aftermath
44:43 - Chapter 5. Anarchism Today: Symmetries with Modern Terrorism
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: open.yale.edu/courses
This course was recorded in Fall 2007.