The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents

Description

A masterly exploration of the strange twists and turns of history, The World That Never Was is a true story of dreamers, schemers, anarchists and secret agents of the late nineteenth century. The last years of the nineteenth century saw the birth of a new phenomenon- international terrorism. Bombings and assassinations shook the great cities of Europe and America, threatening social order. Fiendish networks of anarchist conspiritors were blamed and the public whipped into a frenzy of anxiety. The reality was rather different. These dramatic events were only the most visible part of a longer, clandestine struggle waged between the forces of revolution and reaction, in which little was as it seemed. Alex Butterworth interweaves group biography, cultural history and meticulous detective work to create a revelatory account of the age. Both intimate and panoramic, it is a story with uncanny resonances for today.

Born in 1969, Alex Butterworth is an historian, writer and dramatist whose first book Pompeii- The Living City won the Longmans-History Today New Generation Book of the Year. He lives in Oxford.

Exhilarating...almost any paragraph packs more action than an entire Dan Brown novel * Financial Times * Butterworth has created an impressive work which will captivate those unfamiliar with anarchist history and teach even specialists much that they did not know before * Independent * Compelling and insightful... The World That Never Was is a compelling narrative history both of a generation of demonised and battered - but optimistic - revolutionaries...and of the political police forces ranged against them -- Stuart Christie * Guardian * A rich and passionate account of the world's first international terrorist campaign... Brilliant... A thrilling and important book * Sunday Times * One of the most absorbing depictions of the dark underside of radical politics in many years...a riveting account, teeming with intrigue and adventure and packed with the most astonishing characters * New Statesman *