The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists: Terrorism and Justice in the Gilded Age

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists is the culmination of seven years of research into the 1886 Haymarket bombing and subsequent trial. It not only overturns the prevailing consensus on this event, it documents in detail how the basic facts, as far as they can be determined, have been distorted, obscured, or suppressed for seventy years.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Crime

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a shallow careerist move to make a splash that seriously misrepresents what other historians have said about the Chicago anarchists, essentially setting up a straw man to make Messer Kruse appear to be some kind of defender of truth against falsehood. On the one hand, it says what others have been saying since the 1980s, and what the anarchists themselves said at their trial: that the Haymarket anarchists were revolutionaries who advocated violence and built their defense on the right to defend themselves against the police. The book is so tilted toward the prosecution that it never questions a single police source, automatically finding police to be credible witnesses, an astounding perspective in our current moment, not to mention 1886. The only way that Messer-Kruse can get around the fact that the actual bomb thrower was never identified, along with other criticisms that the defense rightly leveled at the prosecution (and at the police) as they had been before the Haymarket bombing, is to say that by the standards of the Gilded Age, the trial was fair. Even an appeals court at the time found Judge Gary's instruction to the jury that merely advocating armed revolution was enough to find them guilty of conspiracy with the unidentified bomb thrower was legally "erroneous". Messer-Kruse minimizes this finding by agreeing with the appeals court that while wrong, it wasn't that significant an error. It was only because people objected to such unfair trials at the time this happened that we now have reforms in criminal law.

[River · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that offers a lot of insights into the Haymarket anarchists.

The basis of the work is the author's re-examination of much original source material (mainly the trial transcripts, but also press accounts) and the scholarship that had been done since the trial. Based on this, Messer-Kruse presents a compelling argument that the common conventional interpretation of the Haymarket Riot--that the anarchists were tried for free speech--is incorrect and that rather the anarchists were more likely than not part of a general (if not specific) conspiracy aimed at violent social revolution.

It provides a useful anecdote to the more liberal interpretations of the event and admits that the anarchists were just that--believers in the necessity of over-throwing the state. And they took active steps to do that by building a militant movement, arming themselves, and considering how to spark an insurrection.

Definitely worth reading for anyone with an interest in the Haymarket Riot and/or anarchist history.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is not exciting, but this revisionist history goes back to original source material, shedding a lot of light on the Haymarket bombing and its aftermath.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hating this class so actually kind of bitter towards this book also. Pretty interesting but unnecessary detail at some points. I don't know... just can't wait till this class is over.

[Patrick Muldowney · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, re-examining the infamous Haymarket Bombing trial

[Annie]

Not giving this a star rating because it made me think, but I don't have enough background in this subject (read: any) to know for sure how I feel about it. If I re-read this book in the future after reading up on the Haymarket riots myself I'll update this review.

[Kris]

Based on the author's ideology and all reviews by historians I've read, this book is going to suuuuuuuck.