The day Wall Street exploded: a story of America in its first age of terror

Abstract

Just after noon on September 16, 1920, as hundreds of workers poured onto Wall Street for lunch, a horse-cart packed with dynamite exploded. Thirty-nine people died and hundreds more lay wounded in the worst terrorist attack to that point in U.S. history. Historian Beverly Gage recounts that now largely forgotten event: this historical detective saga traces the four-year hunt for the perpetrators, which spread as far as Italy and the new Soviet nation. It also presents the little-known history of homegrown terrorism, and delves into the lives of victims, suspects, and investigators: banking power J.P. Morgan, Jr.; labor radical "Big Bill" Haywood; anarchist firebrands Emma Goldman and Luigi Galleani; "America's Sherlock Holmes," William J. Burns; even a young J. Edgar Hoover. It grapples with some of the controversies of its day, including the rise of the Bureau of Investigation, the federal campaign against immigrant "terrorists," the grassroots effort to define and protect civil liberties, and the establishment of anti-communism at the heart of American politics.--From publisher description.

Contents

Part I: September 16, 1920 -- The middle of things -- The end of the world -- Part II: The story of dynamite -- The first terrorist act in America -- American roughneck -- The war at home -- Part III: A national crime -- The great detectives -- Business as usual -- Usual suspects -- A perfect alibi -- Part IV: Faccia a faccia -- The anarchist fighters -- Illegal practices -- The martyr who wasn't -- Part V: The Russian connection -- The "great detective" returns -- Triple-cross -- The Wall Street curse -- The roar of the twenties -- Appendix: In memoriam.