Death to bourgeois society : the propagandists of the deed / edited and translated by Mitchell Abidor

**Never before presented in English, here are the actual words and explanations of the acts of the Propagandists of the Deed, which had enormous impact on French political and cultural life** Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. __Death to Bourgeois Society__ tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. The volume focuses on the main avatars of this movement and contains key first-person narratives of the events, from Ravachol’s forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Emile Henry’s questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Auguste Vaillant’s confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Santo Caserio’s description of the assassination and his defense at his trial. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. Never before presented in English, here are the actual words and explanations of the acts of the Propagandists of the Deed, which had enormous impact on French political and cultural life Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. The volume focuses on the main avatars of this movement and contains key first-person narratives of the events, from Ravachol's forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Emile Henry's questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Auguste Vaillant's confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Santo Caserio's description of the assassination and his defense at his trial. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. Front Cover 1 Title Page 2 Half Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Introduction 8 Ravachol 20 A Narrative 20 Ravachol’s Forbidden Speech 24 My Principles 29 Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité 33 For Ravachol 34 La Ravachole 34 Eulogy for Ravachol 37 Guillotinade 41 Ravachol’s Laugh 43 The Little Ravachols Will Grow Up 46 Auguste Vaillant 50 The Interrogation of Vaillant 50 Vaillant’s Courtroom Speech 56 Émile Henry 60 Émile Henry’s Indictment 60 La Rue des Bons-Enfants 65 The Courtroom Interrogation of Émile Henry 72 Émile Henry’s Defense Speech 80 Letter to the Director of the Conciergerie 90 For Émile Henry 100 Émile Henry 100 Santo Caserio 106 The Trial of Santo Caserio 106 Caserio’s Defense Speech 109 Coda: Simon Radowitzky 112 About the Author 123 Never before presented in English, here are the actual words and explanations of the acts of the Propagandists of the Deed, which had enormous impact on French political and cultural life Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. The volume focuses on the main avatars of this movement and contains key first-person narratives of the events, from Ravachol's forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Emile Henry's questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Auguste Vaillant's confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Santo Caserio's description of the assassination and his defense at his trial. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. Their courage was motivated by noble ideals whose realization they saw their bombs and assassinations as hastening. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. The texts collected in Death to Bourgeois Society focus on the main avatars of this movement: the grave robber/murderer/terrorist Ravachol; Auguste Vaillant, who bombed the Chamber of Deputies; Emile Henry, who attacked both the bourgeois in their class function and their very existence; and the Italian immigrant Santo Caserio, who brought down the curtain on the age when he assassinated the French president Sadi Carnot. The volume contains key first person narratives of the events, from Ravachol's forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Henry's questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Vaillant's confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Caserio's description of the assassination and his defense at his trial. "Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. The texts collected in [the book] focus on the main avatars of this movement: the grave-robber/murderer/terrorist Ravachol; Auguste Vaillant, who bombed the Chamber of Deputies; Emile Henry, who attacked both the bourgeois in their class function and their very existence; and the Italian immigrant Santo Caserio, who brought down the curtain on the age when we assassinated the French president Sadi Carnot. The volume contains key first-person narratives of the events, from Ravachol's forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Henry's questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Vaillant's confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Caserio's description of the assassination and his defense at his trial."--Back cover