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Masks Of Anarchy: The History Of A Radical Poem, From Percy Shelley To The Triangle Factory Fire
Masks of Anarchy tells the extraordinary story of Percy Shelley’s poem “The Masque
of Anarchy,” from its conception in Italy and suppression in England to the moment it became a
catalyst for protest among New York City workers a century later.
Shelley penned the poem in 1819, after hearing of the Peterloo Massacre, where British cavalry
charged peaceful political demonstrators near Manchester. His words would later inspire figures
as wide-ranging as Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi—and also Pauline Newman, the
woman the New York Times called the “New Joan of Arc” in 1907. Newman was a Jewish immigrant who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and came to be a leading organizer—and
the first female organizer—of one of America’s most powerful unions, the International Ladies’
Garment Workers’ Union. As she marched with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of New
Yorkers in the streets, Shelley’s poem never ceased to inspire her.
“Shake your chains to earth like dew,” it implores. “Ye are many—they are few.”
of Anarchy,” from its conception in Italy and suppression in England to the moment it became a
catalyst for protest among New York City workers a century later.
Shelley penned the poem in 1819, after hearing of the Peterloo Massacre, where British cavalry
charged peaceful political demonstrators near Manchester. His words would later inspire figures
as wide-ranging as Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi—and also Pauline Newman, the
woman the New York Times called the “New Joan of Arc” in 1907. Newman was a Jewish immigrant who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and came to be a leading organizer—and
the first female organizer—of one of America’s most powerful unions, the International Ladies’
Garment Workers’ Union. As she marched with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of New
Yorkers in the streets, Shelley’s poem never ceased to inspire her.
“Shake your chains to earth like dew,” it implores. “Ye are many—they are few.”
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 10, 2023
An interesting intersection of history and poetry, but nothing about its execution wowed me.
December 28, 2017
liked this, but - similar to Loving in Virginia - was more interested in the content than necessarily the execution, art, writing, etc of the graphic novel. in other words, it didn't wow me, but I did find it rly interesting. had researched & written about the Triangle Factory Fire my freshman year of college and need for unions labor abuse etc as we plummet deeper into this new gilded age bullshit and was fascinated to see the link to Shelley's poetry. also harkens to Lorde's "poetry is not a luxury" years later. the social function of poetry is something to ponder..
also didn't realize Shelley's poem was read by a union organizer after the fire. also loved learning about Pauline Newman, or as the NYT called her, the "New Joan of Arc". god bless. a historic socialist figure who helped earn the gains of workers in America erased over time by the myth of benevolent statehood....
also didn't realize Shelley's poem was read by a union organizer after the fire. also loved learning about Pauline Newman, or as the NYT called her, the "New Joan of Arc". god bless. a historic socialist figure who helped earn the gains of workers in America erased over time by the myth of benevolent statehood....
June 17, 2017
Another rather rewarding random find in the library catalogue. I was not aware that this was about Percy Shelley's poem when I put a hold on it, but it was certainly not a disappointing discovery. I have not come across many graphic novels based off of poetry, but since I enjoy graphic novels more than poetry it was not an unwelcome thing way to finally imbibe some Shelley. That said, there was a lot more going on than just the poetry.
As far as the kinds of nonfiction graphic histories that I have been reading of late, this particular volume fit in well. Despite this being the first graphic novel of an extremely privileged person I was really impressed by the way they decided to portray the life and influence of Shelley through the lens of women. Willing to not only show Shelley's greatness but also his weaknesses and shortcomings.
The artwork was also pretty phenomenal as well. Summer McClinton's black and white artwork is not only clear and dramatic but also gives you a sense that it is reflecting the historic times, since they seem to draw a lot of inspiration from antique photographs. I really have a growing appreciation for these larger print volumes and how I feel like I can really dive into the details! I feel like this size would probably help some less experienced readers as well with some of the more intricate page layouts. Nothing too mind bending, but I never felt like I was squinting to try and figure out what was going on.
As many other reviewers have pointed out, the introduction was extremely over-the-top and rather uninformative. Even the font choice was rather poor in my opinion since it made the whole thing seem even longer! I would highly recommend people NOT read it since I'm sure it has stopped more than one person from enjoying this otherwise quite phenomenal work!
As far as the kinds of nonfiction graphic histories that I have been reading of late, this particular volume fit in well. Despite this being the first graphic novel of an extremely privileged person I was really impressed by the way they decided to portray the life and influence of Shelley through the lens of women. Willing to not only show Shelley's greatness but also his weaknesses and shortcomings.
The artwork was also pretty phenomenal as well. Summer McClinton's black and white artwork is not only clear and dramatic but also gives you a sense that it is reflecting the historic times, since they seem to draw a lot of inspiration from antique photographs. I really have a growing appreciation for these larger print volumes and how I feel like I can really dive into the details! I feel like this size would probably help some less experienced readers as well with some of the more intricate page layouts. Nothing too mind bending, but I never felt like I was squinting to try and figure out what was going on.
As many other reviewers have pointed out, the introduction was extremely over-the-top and rather uninformative. Even the font choice was rather poor in my opinion since it made the whole thing seem even longer! I would highly recommend people NOT read it since I'm sure it has stopped more than one person from enjoying this otherwise quite phenomenal work!
April 26, 2014
A good historical-biographical graphic novel. Narrates the lives of English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and Jewish American labor organizer Pauline Newman in parallel chapters, connecting them through the Shelley poem that lends the comic its title. The writing's a bit heavy-handed at times, but it's definitely an interesting and worthwhile read.
January 17, 2017
Michael Demson’s book, Masks of Anarchy tells the story of two political radicals and the poem that brought them together: Percy Shelley and the early 20th Century union organizer he inspired, Pauline Newman. Demson, in collaboration with illustrator Summer McClinton, accomplishes this through an unusual medium: a radical political comic!
You can find my full review and much more about Shelley here: http://www.grahamhenderson.ca/book-re... You can get the eBook for about $14 CDN and the paperback for $8. This is an unbelievable bargain. Just DO IT! https://www.versobooks.com/books/1434...
Pauline Newman is largely unknown to history. She came to America as a child, the daughter of immigrant Lithuanian Jews. She spoke no English, lived in appalling poverty and was subjected to brutal labour conditions as a child worker in New York. But inspired by the poetry of Shelley, she went on to be a driving force in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and helped to change the world. Shelley himself had set out to change the world - through poetry. And, across the centuries, a poem that was not even published in his lifetime, did just that: The Mask of Anarchy.
Through the medium of a comic, Demson tells the story of the creation of Shelley's poem and the incredible real world influence it had a century later and on the other side of the world. Regular visitors to www.grahamhenderson.ca will know that my goal is to introduce Shelley to a new generation of readers in an accessible, approachable manner. Thus, when I stumble on something like Masks of Anarchy I get very excited: it is something I can recommend to the burgeoning Shelley Nation without reserve. I know this will fire your interest in Shelley and inflame your passion for him. Masks of Anarchy is thrilling to read. I found myself emotionally overwhelmed at several points - most particularly as I read the story of Pauline Newman’s activism.
Poetry, writes Demson in his introduction, "is our most fundamental weapon against alienation, isolation, automation, apathy and despair." Coupled with skepticism, that ancient philosophy that Shelley so admired, the liberal arts and the humanities may be the only trump card we have to play in the face of a wave of 21st century intolerance, hypocrisy, xenophobia and cyberlibertarianism.
But what of the poem Demson celebrates? The Mask of Anarchy was written by Shelley as a response to the massacre of unarmed protestors (including children) in Manchester on 16 August 1819. Shelley was in Italy at the time, hence the famous opening lines of the poem, “As I lay asleep in Italy / There came a voice from over the Sea.” Shelley had been cut off from the politics of England for some years, so he does not mean he was literally asleep, he means this figuratively. As Paul Foot has pointed out, the people of England had endured the worst government in their history for Shelley's entire adult life (1810-1822); Shelley called it the "ghastly masquerade." (Foot, 19) Living in Italy, Shelley felt cut off and impotent for years. He was outraged by what he heard and it motivated him to drop everything else he was doing and focus on a response. Now he wanted to get plugged back in.
The Mask of Anarchy was the first of a stream of highly charged political poems and essays: (i) his letter in support of the radical journalist Richard Carlile (one of the words great defenses of free speech), (ii) Peter Bell the Third (a scathing attack on Wordsworth's callow, shameless black-sliding into conservatism), (iii) A Philosophical View of Reform (a brilliant set of philosophical proposals that anticipated socialism by decades) and (iv) The Mask of Anarchy. Not one of these works of genius were published in his life time.
All of the works were either ignored or actively repressed until very recently. Even modern collections of Shelley's poetry routinely omit The Mask of Anarchy; a work Richard Holmes has called "the greatest poem of political protest every written in English". It is time to restore this poem to its rightful place in the history of protest - and not a moment too soon considering the election of Donald Trump in America. If ever there was a poet speaking to our times, it is Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The Mask of Anarchy is neatly divided into two sections: the first is the visionary dream just described, and the second (which PMS Dawson considers “the main substance of the poem”), is Shelley’s address to the people of England in which he outlines the nature of the political problem and proposes a solution. Shelley’s economic analysis has been widely praised for its sophistication and for anticipating socialism. Dawson wrote that Shelley addressed himself “responsibly, and with a realism that does not shun the banal, to directing the efforts of those who seek to redeem [the plight of the people of England]".
Following his economic analysis, Shelley issues his call not to arms, but to peaceful assembly:
'Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free -'
It is this assembly (made up of people from every walk of society and without class distinction) upon which Shelley imagines liberty will be founded. His description of that liberty is celebrated:
What are thou Freedom? O! could slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand - tyrants would flee
Like a dream's dim imagery:'
Thou art not, as imposters say,
A shadow soon to pass away,
A superstition, and a name
Echoing from the cave of Fame.'
'For the labourer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread
From his daily labour come
In a neat and happy home.'
Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
For the trampled multitude -
Lines 209-222
Even reading this poem at a distance of 200 years, it is impossible not to be inspired. And very clearly it inspired Newman. She incorporated a lot of Shelley’s poetry into her speeches and Demson and McClinton beautifully capture this in their book. The final chapter brings Shelley and Newman, graphically, face to face. This has a quite electrifying effect as we are presented with situations in Newman’s life that cause her to draw directly from Shelley’s poetry for inspiration.
Very clearly, Shelley’s calls for unity, struggle and revolutionary consciousness, for a great assembly and general strikes, had a profound effect on Newman and therefore on the development of one of the most powerful and effective unions of the 20th Century. It also led to the creation of the Worker's University, where course on the radical poets of the French Revolution were taught.
Well done Percy. And well done Pauline. We will need a lot more of your help in the 21st Century. Thanks to Michael Demson and his illustrator Summer McClinton you both feel closer than ever. Buy the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1434... and visit me at www.grahamhenderson.ca and learn more!
You can find my full review and much more about Shelley here: http://www.grahamhenderson.ca/book-re... You can get the eBook for about $14 CDN and the paperback for $8. This is an unbelievable bargain. Just DO IT! https://www.versobooks.com/books/1434...
Pauline Newman is largely unknown to history. She came to America as a child, the daughter of immigrant Lithuanian Jews. She spoke no English, lived in appalling poverty and was subjected to brutal labour conditions as a child worker in New York. But inspired by the poetry of Shelley, she went on to be a driving force in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and helped to change the world. Shelley himself had set out to change the world - through poetry. And, across the centuries, a poem that was not even published in his lifetime, did just that: The Mask of Anarchy.
Through the medium of a comic, Demson tells the story of the creation of Shelley's poem and the incredible real world influence it had a century later and on the other side of the world. Regular visitors to www.grahamhenderson.ca will know that my goal is to introduce Shelley to a new generation of readers in an accessible, approachable manner. Thus, when I stumble on something like Masks of Anarchy I get very excited: it is something I can recommend to the burgeoning Shelley Nation without reserve. I know this will fire your interest in Shelley and inflame your passion for him. Masks of Anarchy is thrilling to read. I found myself emotionally overwhelmed at several points - most particularly as I read the story of Pauline Newman’s activism.
Poetry, writes Demson in his introduction, "is our most fundamental weapon against alienation, isolation, automation, apathy and despair." Coupled with skepticism, that ancient philosophy that Shelley so admired, the liberal arts and the humanities may be the only trump card we have to play in the face of a wave of 21st century intolerance, hypocrisy, xenophobia and cyberlibertarianism.
But what of the poem Demson celebrates? The Mask of Anarchy was written by Shelley as a response to the massacre of unarmed protestors (including children) in Manchester on 16 August 1819. Shelley was in Italy at the time, hence the famous opening lines of the poem, “As I lay asleep in Italy / There came a voice from over the Sea.” Shelley had been cut off from the politics of England for some years, so he does not mean he was literally asleep, he means this figuratively. As Paul Foot has pointed out, the people of England had endured the worst government in their history for Shelley's entire adult life (1810-1822); Shelley called it the "ghastly masquerade." (Foot, 19) Living in Italy, Shelley felt cut off and impotent for years. He was outraged by what he heard and it motivated him to drop everything else he was doing and focus on a response. Now he wanted to get plugged back in.
The Mask of Anarchy was the first of a stream of highly charged political poems and essays: (i) his letter in support of the radical journalist Richard Carlile (one of the words great defenses of free speech), (ii) Peter Bell the Third (a scathing attack on Wordsworth's callow, shameless black-sliding into conservatism), (iii) A Philosophical View of Reform (a brilliant set of philosophical proposals that anticipated socialism by decades) and (iv) The Mask of Anarchy. Not one of these works of genius were published in his life time.
All of the works were either ignored or actively repressed until very recently. Even modern collections of Shelley's poetry routinely omit The Mask of Anarchy; a work Richard Holmes has called "the greatest poem of political protest every written in English". It is time to restore this poem to its rightful place in the history of protest - and not a moment too soon considering the election of Donald Trump in America. If ever there was a poet speaking to our times, it is Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The Mask of Anarchy is neatly divided into two sections: the first is the visionary dream just described, and the second (which PMS Dawson considers “the main substance of the poem”), is Shelley’s address to the people of England in which he outlines the nature of the political problem and proposes a solution. Shelley’s economic analysis has been widely praised for its sophistication and for anticipating socialism. Dawson wrote that Shelley addressed himself “responsibly, and with a realism that does not shun the banal, to directing the efforts of those who seek to redeem [the plight of the people of England]".
Following his economic analysis, Shelley issues his call not to arms, but to peaceful assembly:
'Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free -'
It is this assembly (made up of people from every walk of society and without class distinction) upon which Shelley imagines liberty will be founded. His description of that liberty is celebrated:
What are thou Freedom? O! could slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand - tyrants would flee
Like a dream's dim imagery:'
Thou art not, as imposters say,
A shadow soon to pass away,
A superstition, and a name
Echoing from the cave of Fame.'
'For the labourer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread
From his daily labour come
In a neat and happy home.'
Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
For the trampled multitude -
Lines 209-222
Even reading this poem at a distance of 200 years, it is impossible not to be inspired. And very clearly it inspired Newman. She incorporated a lot of Shelley’s poetry into her speeches and Demson and McClinton beautifully capture this in their book. The final chapter brings Shelley and Newman, graphically, face to face. This has a quite electrifying effect as we are presented with situations in Newman’s life that cause her to draw directly from Shelley’s poetry for inspiration.
Very clearly, Shelley’s calls for unity, struggle and revolutionary consciousness, for a great assembly and general strikes, had a profound effect on Newman and therefore on the development of one of the most powerful and effective unions of the 20th Century. It also led to the creation of the Worker's University, where course on the radical poets of the French Revolution were taught.
Well done Percy. And well done Pauline. We will need a lot more of your help in the 21st Century. Thanks to Michael Demson and his illustrator Summer McClinton you both feel closer than ever. Buy the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1434... and visit me at www.grahamhenderson.ca and learn more!
April 28, 2019
This book does a beautiful job twining the biographies and life work of the poet Percy Shelley with that of labor organizer Pauline Newman. The artwork is gorgeous, and really brings to life both individuals' stories.
I loved learning about Pauline Newman- she's a fascinating woman and seeing her story portrayed in this medium, alongside Shelley's poem, was really beautiful.
One of the frustrating aspects of this book was the really stark contrast between the privileged life Percy Shelley led, and the very real and serious struggles of Newman in trying to improve the conditions of working people (including herself). The contrast between the two contexts was jarring, but I think overall it works to argue that the impact and interpretation of an artistic work is not tied solely to the creator, but is something that we can create in ourselves.
Shelley's portions of the book are narrated by his wife (and Frankenstein author) Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and a significant amount of time is spent on her backstory and development before meeting Percy. This framing of Percy's story is useful, as it helps to make the contrast with Newman's life less jarring, and it helps bridge the political projects of the two stories.
While I'd love to have spent more time with Newman, and to have heard about her personal life more (she has a lovely HEA with another woman, but it's not explored deeply), overall the book was sweet and optimistic, and helped me learn a lot about two very different and very interesting times in history.
I loved learning about Pauline Newman- she's a fascinating woman and seeing her story portrayed in this medium, alongside Shelley's poem, was really beautiful.
One of the frustrating aspects of this book was the really stark contrast between the privileged life Percy Shelley led, and the very real and serious struggles of Newman in trying to improve the conditions of working people (including herself). The contrast between the two contexts was jarring, but I think overall it works to argue that the impact and interpretation of an artistic work is not tied solely to the creator, but is something that we can create in ourselves.
Shelley's portions of the book are narrated by his wife (and Frankenstein author) Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and a significant amount of time is spent on her backstory and development before meeting Percy. This framing of Percy's story is useful, as it helps to make the contrast with Newman's life less jarring, and it helps bridge the political projects of the two stories.
While I'd love to have spent more time with Newman, and to have heard about her personal life more (she has a lovely HEA with another woman, but it's not explored deeply), overall the book was sweet and optimistic, and helped me learn a lot about two very different and very interesting times in history.
October 7, 2023
Masks Of Anarchy: The History Of A Radical Poem, From Percy Shelley To The Triangle Factory Fire by Michael Demson is a fascinating, although brief, biography of both Percy Shelly and Pauline Newman. The comic jumps back and forth between the two people's stories weaving the one's poem and personal development to the other's struggle. This drawing of connection between a poem about struggle and the personal struggle of Pauline Newman, that really represents the struggle of so many, represents the absolute best kind of story telling. Although we may all be years apart or far from each other there are often very obvious connections between our mutual struggles.
My one hang up that maybe is a critique or maybe is just a simple gripe is that I expected a more robust history of the actual poem itself. The Peterloo Massacre is only represented on about seven pages. The poem is also represented at the end, but could have been more drawn out with imagery.
My one hang up that maybe is a critique or maybe is just a simple gripe is that I expected a more robust history of the actual poem itself. The Peterloo Massacre is only represented on about seven pages. The poem is also represented at the end, but could have been more drawn out with imagery.
April 19, 2020
I really enjoyed the way these two stories were woven together but it also really highlighted the different between Shelley's fiery and brilliant words and his,quite frankly, selfish & thoughtless life. I hadn't come across Pauline Newman before but I'll definitely be seeking out more information about her.
I think we all need a reread of Mask of Anarchy at the moment
I think we all need a reread of Mask of Anarchy at the moment
July 26, 2024
Excellent. I wasn’t sure what to expect based on the very earnest and rather pretentious foreword but it was great. A good dramatic overview of Shelley’s improbably romantic and tragic life interwoven with the edifying story of how Pauline Newman overcame the horrors of working conditions in 1920s New York garment factories and organised workers using Shelley’s poems as inspiration.
July 18, 2021
Great way to link some important timelines into a unified story.
March 31, 2015
This books places two stories in alternate chapters and uses the format of a graphic novel to attempt to capture significant ideas without undue verbal explanation. I suspect it creates a temptation to read quickly in order to get to the end, as though reaching the end was the purpose of reading any book. Far quicker and more efficient to read the cover notes and stop there. However, some of the significance takes a bit of time to register.
Shelley was wealthy and from a privileged background. I notice another reviewer (John Lamberth) attacks him for this and it is worth using his review as a foil for my own. Inherited wealth was the only way to achieve independence and a good education in an era when the plutocracy owned and controlled virtually everything. In this period especially, which was subsequent to the French Revolution and its aftermath, Britain was a brutally repressive country and proponents of liberty or equality faced very real and urgent risks of imprisonment and worse. So when we are told that Shelley engaged in speaking out on such matters in Ireland and England, we are to understand clearly that he put his own prospects very much at risk for his beliefs. We see his assistant beaten up by police spies to secure information that might get Shelley prosecuted for example. In time, Shelley was indeed driven into exile to evade government persecution. He did indeed appear to have absented himself from the struggle, but when the Peterloo Massacre took place it was Shelley's famous poem that articulated forcefully the importance of struggle against oppressive government and the vile plutocracy whose interests government served.
It seems easy enough to complain, as John Lamberth does in his review, that Shelley was safely in Italy when he produced this seditious appeal for collective action. We cannot say how Shelley's life might have unfolded had he not drowned though he was very much an activist in his writing, which was after all his best way of helping the cause. But in the story of Pauline Newman we do in fact see in practice how Shelley's words could achieve their intended effect. We see an inspiring account of the courage of a young, Jewish immigrant from Latvia to the USA, working from childhood in a series of terrible garment factories, until arriving through self education in her very limited spare time at Shelley's poem, which became her simple gospel for activism against the exploitation of violent and deeply intimidating employers. It is hard today to recall the extent to which the forces of the wealthy were ranged against working people, the courage required to stand up and resist that oppression, and the surprising - surely unexpected- success of collective action among the very weakest in a viciously unequal society. The reality is that they did succeed and she achieved remarkable results through her leadership of women trade unionists in the garment industry.
Yet why is it so hard to imagine the conditions facing Pauline Newman, knowing as we do that they are reproduced today in the garment factories of Bangladesh and elsewhere around our globalised economy? The factory fire in New York a century ago is replicated surely in the death of over a thousand women workers in the disastrous collapse of a factory in Bangladesh in 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013...
And if that is how working conditions remain, the ideological assault against the right of workers to trade unions and to take protest action including strikes has never been more severe, not least in the USA but also in the UK, where the working class have been not only de-skilled but also depoliticised and deprived of their voice by a new plutocracy that is ever more strident in its greedy demands and its utter neglect of social responsibility. The courage required (and the intimidation faced) today for trade unionism to recover its activism and its support among working people is not greater but the same as that facing Pauliine Newman or the victims of the Peterloo Massacre.
This is a very simple book and it needs to be because its simple message has to be rediscovered for every generation. We are many. They are few.
Shelley was wealthy and from a privileged background. I notice another reviewer (John Lamberth) attacks him for this and it is worth using his review as a foil for my own. Inherited wealth was the only way to achieve independence and a good education in an era when the plutocracy owned and controlled virtually everything. In this period especially, which was subsequent to the French Revolution and its aftermath, Britain was a brutally repressive country and proponents of liberty or equality faced very real and urgent risks of imprisonment and worse. So when we are told that Shelley engaged in speaking out on such matters in Ireland and England, we are to understand clearly that he put his own prospects very much at risk for his beliefs. We see his assistant beaten up by police spies to secure information that might get Shelley prosecuted for example. In time, Shelley was indeed driven into exile to evade government persecution. He did indeed appear to have absented himself from the struggle, but when the Peterloo Massacre took place it was Shelley's famous poem that articulated forcefully the importance of struggle against oppressive government and the vile plutocracy whose interests government served.
It seems easy enough to complain, as John Lamberth does in his review, that Shelley was safely in Italy when he produced this seditious appeal for collective action. We cannot say how Shelley's life might have unfolded had he not drowned though he was very much an activist in his writing, which was after all his best way of helping the cause. But in the story of Pauline Newman we do in fact see in practice how Shelley's words could achieve their intended effect. We see an inspiring account of the courage of a young, Jewish immigrant from Latvia to the USA, working from childhood in a series of terrible garment factories, until arriving through self education in her very limited spare time at Shelley's poem, which became her simple gospel for activism against the exploitation of violent and deeply intimidating employers. It is hard today to recall the extent to which the forces of the wealthy were ranged against working people, the courage required to stand up and resist that oppression, and the surprising - surely unexpected- success of collective action among the very weakest in a viciously unequal society. The reality is that they did succeed and she achieved remarkable results through her leadership of women trade unionists in the garment industry.
Yet why is it so hard to imagine the conditions facing Pauline Newman, knowing as we do that they are reproduced today in the garment factories of Bangladesh and elsewhere around our globalised economy? The factory fire in New York a century ago is replicated surely in the death of over a thousand women workers in the disastrous collapse of a factory in Bangladesh in 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013...
And if that is how working conditions remain, the ideological assault against the right of workers to trade unions and to take protest action including strikes has never been more severe, not least in the USA but also in the UK, where the working class have been not only de-skilled but also depoliticised and deprived of their voice by a new plutocracy that is ever more strident in its greedy demands and its utter neglect of social responsibility. The courage required (and the intimidation faced) today for trade unionism to recover its activism and its support among working people is not greater but the same as that facing Pauliine Newman or the victims of the Peterloo Massacre.
This is a very simple book and it needs to be because its simple message has to be rediscovered for every generation. We are many. They are few.
November 15, 2014
This was one of those books where I judged by the cover. I saw that it was a graphic novel with the word "Anarchy" in the title so I thought I'd give it a read. I was not familiar with the Percy Shelley poem (nor, in fact, am I familiar with any of his poems since I rarely enjoy or seek out poetry) so I didn't know what to expect.
It actually took me two attempts to read this. The foreword was long and too pretentious for my taste and my first attempt to read this stopped about a page into the foreword. I managed to force myself through it and then get through the author's preface. Once I started the actual story, it was fine.
Let me start by saying I am very much anti-union. At least, I'm anti-union in regards to the modern day union, which I find to be a fat, bloated, and wasteful use of manpower and money, more about fighting "greed" with "greed" and gaining political favor. However, I am not opposed to how unions first formed. It's hard for me to go against something that in its simplest form was trying to force employers to do things like provide a working environment where "burning to death" was not a possibility and actually paying fair wages for agreed upon work (and not finding bullshit reasons to dock those wages). So, I take little issue with the overall topic of the book (even if I find the political philosophy on which it is based to be abhorrent).
My previous knowledge of Shelley was mostly the bit about him being married to Mary, aka The Woman Who Wrote Frankenstein. There was that and the part about him hanging out with Lord Byron and the part where he died in a boat accident and then they burned his body on the beach when it finally washed ashore.
I did not know about his outspoken radical politics. Nor did I know about what an immature, irresponsible jerk he was. He didn't really work (because he's a poet and activist), pretty much sponged off others, and used people until he grew bored of them and then abandoned them. He just left his first wife (Harriet) so he could go hang out with William Godwin (Mary's father) and do his whatever the hell he did. Oh, and Harriet was pregnant with their SECOND child. The he starts an affair with Mary and they decide to run off. Mary's step-sister Claire comes along, but they told Mary's half-sister Fanny she couldn't go with them. Shelley gets Mary pregnant and they hang out with Byron. Byron starts getting it on with Claire and gets HER pregnant.
But then Mary miscarries and everybody starts getting bored with one another. Shelley keeps getting messages from friends and family filled with bad news, but hey, activism. Harriet grows despondent and kills herself. Then Shelley is outraged that the court won't give him custody of his children... because he's shown to be such a fabulous parent. Meanwhile, Fanny kills herself. And Shelley goes sailing and dies.
But he wrote some kick-ass poems and political junk.
The book seems to be portraying Shelley as some sort of hero of the working class and his writings inspired the activism of Pauline Newman and all she did, particularly in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster. Newman regularly reads and quotes Shelley to inspire workers to stand up to the factory owners.
But what Shelley really was, in fact, was yet another blowhard who thought himself some great voice of the faceless masses while he leaves a trail of destruction on those he actually knows.
Help those in front of you before trying to save the world.
So, yeah... I find absolutely nothing to praise in Percy Shelley.
Oh, and I wasn't overly fond of the art in this thing either.
The story was fine. It was interesting (even if I didn't agree with all of it) and informative, but I just couldn't take what really amounted to overlooking Shelley's enormous faults in the name of creating a hero.
It actually took me two attempts to read this. The foreword was long and too pretentious for my taste and my first attempt to read this stopped about a page into the foreword. I managed to force myself through it and then get through the author's preface. Once I started the actual story, it was fine.
Let me start by saying I am very much anti-union. At least, I'm anti-union in regards to the modern day union, which I find to be a fat, bloated, and wasteful use of manpower and money, more about fighting "greed" with "greed" and gaining political favor. However, I am not opposed to how unions first formed. It's hard for me to go against something that in its simplest form was trying to force employers to do things like provide a working environment where "burning to death" was not a possibility and actually paying fair wages for agreed upon work (and not finding bullshit reasons to dock those wages). So, I take little issue with the overall topic of the book (even if I find the political philosophy on which it is based to be abhorrent).
My previous knowledge of Shelley was mostly the bit about him being married to Mary, aka The Woman Who Wrote Frankenstein. There was that and the part about him hanging out with Lord Byron and the part where he died in a boat accident and then they burned his body on the beach when it finally washed ashore.
I did not know about his outspoken radical politics. Nor did I know about what an immature, irresponsible jerk he was. He didn't really work (because he's a poet and activist), pretty much sponged off others, and used people until he grew bored of them and then abandoned them. He just left his first wife (Harriet) so he could go hang out with William Godwin (Mary's father) and do his whatever the hell he did. Oh, and Harriet was pregnant with their SECOND child. The he starts an affair with Mary and they decide to run off. Mary's step-sister Claire comes along, but they told Mary's half-sister Fanny she couldn't go with them. Shelley gets Mary pregnant and they hang out with Byron. Byron starts getting it on with Claire and gets HER pregnant.
But then Mary miscarries and everybody starts getting bored with one another. Shelley keeps getting messages from friends and family filled with bad news, but hey, activism. Harriet grows despondent and kills herself. Then Shelley is outraged that the court won't give him custody of his children... because he's shown to be such a fabulous parent. Meanwhile, Fanny kills herself. And Shelley goes sailing and dies.
But he wrote some kick-ass poems and political junk.
The book seems to be portraying Shelley as some sort of hero of the working class and his writings inspired the activism of Pauline Newman and all she did, particularly in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster. Newman regularly reads and quotes Shelley to inspire workers to stand up to the factory owners.
But what Shelley really was, in fact, was yet another blowhard who thought himself some great voice of the faceless masses while he leaves a trail of destruction on those he actually knows.
Help those in front of you before trying to save the world.
So, yeah... I find absolutely nothing to praise in Percy Shelley.
Oh, and I wasn't overly fond of the art in this thing either.
The story was fine. It was interesting (even if I didn't agree with all of it) and informative, but I just couldn't take what really amounted to overlooking Shelley's enormous faults in the name of creating a hero.
July 15, 2013
Masks of Anarchy depicts the lives of both Percy Shelley and Pauline Newman and highlights the similarities in their struggles against oppressive forces doing their utmost to silence progressive voices. Shelley's fiery poetry conveyed the anger of the factory workers and brought them to the point where reform could commence and working conditions would be all the better in the American labor system.
Though I am not an avid graphic novel reader, I found that the illustrations enhanced my reading experience and were incredibly moving in the book's more emotional moments. Narrating through Mary Shelley's voice in the 1812-1832 portion was a nice touch and through her perspective it was easy to see how the inflammatory nature of Shelley's poetry inspired Newman and the similarity of their personalities.
Perhaps it was the illustrations, the narration of two strong female characters, or the connection between two historical figures I never thought of myself, but I have never felt so involved in a piece of nonfiction work until reading Masks of Anarchy. It begs the question that were the teaching of history as lovingly planned and cared for as this novel, perhaps students would enjoy and retain historical knowledge more than they do now.
With a fantastic story, great illustrations, and an emotional investment into two historical figures of whom before I had thought of little, I would recommend this book to anyone - even those who don't find themselves reading often, as it is a short piece that I finished in a single sitting. Five out of five stars!
Though I am not an avid graphic novel reader, I found that the illustrations enhanced my reading experience and were incredibly moving in the book's more emotional moments. Narrating through Mary Shelley's voice in the 1812-1832 portion was a nice touch and through her perspective it was easy to see how the inflammatory nature of Shelley's poetry inspired Newman and the similarity of their personalities.
Perhaps it was the illustrations, the narration of two strong female characters, or the connection between two historical figures I never thought of myself, but I have never felt so involved in a piece of nonfiction work until reading Masks of Anarchy. It begs the question that were the teaching of history as lovingly planned and cared for as this novel, perhaps students would enjoy and retain historical knowledge more than they do now.
With a fantastic story, great illustrations, and an emotional investment into two historical figures of whom before I had thought of little, I would recommend this book to anyone - even those who don't find themselves reading often, as it is a short piece that I finished in a single sitting. Five out of five stars!
September 15, 2013
Nice! I liked this a lot better than I expected to. The title is from Shelley's poem. I had been noddingly familiar with Shelley as a poet, though I've not read much of his work. This book opened my eyes to Shelley the reformer. The book gives some detail of his life, particularly the Peterloo Massacre that inspired the poem, "Masks of Anarchy.". The book also goes into detail of the life of Pauline Newman, an immigrant labor activist who became the first female organizer of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Shelley's poem inspired her and countless others in their quest for equal rights. The book intercuts alternating chapters of Shelley and Newman, and culminates in the poem, which still resonates today. The combination of words and images is powerful and brought me close to tears by the end, which is no mean feat. Highly recommended!
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which, in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many--they are few.
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which, in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many--they are few.
July 8, 2013
Even though the use of the word Anarchy in Shelley's poem may be a slight malaproprism, this graphic novel, which juxtaposes the construction of the poem with it's use as fodder for protest a century later, is a great read.
I found the entire thing fascinating! I'm grateful to Michael Demson, etc. for choosing to write about these important events in the struggle for human rights/worker's rights.
I found the entire thing fascinating! I'm grateful to Michael Demson, etc. for choosing to write about these important events in the struggle for human rights/worker's rights.
January 17, 2016
A wonderful story that spans across centuries, Masks of Anarchy is a must-read for anyone who's looking for an inspiring message for today's progressive social movements. The graphic art style also helps to make this book incredibly engaging and accessible.
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September 30, 2013Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few.
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few.
October 9, 2016
a great introductory piece with easy access linking Peterloo, Shelley's poem and the triangle factory fire through people's standing up to power
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