1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820386303321

Autore

Zimmer Kenyon

Titolo

Immigrants against the state : Yiddish and Italian anarchism in America / / Kenyon Zimmer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana, Illinois ; ; Chicago, Illinois ; ; Springfield, Illinois : , : University of Illinois Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

0-252-09743-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (321 p.)

Collana

Working Class in American History

Disciplina

335.830973

Soggetti

Anarchism - United States - History - 20th century

Jewish anarchists - United States

Italian Americans - History

Immigrants - United States

History

Förenta staterna

United States

USA

Etats-Unis

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical refererences and index.

Nota di contenuto

"Yiddish is my homeland" : Jewish anarchists in New York City -- I senza patria : Italian anarchists in Paterson, New Jersey -- "All flags look alike to us" : immigrant anarchists in San Francisco -- "The whole world is our country" : transnational anarchist activism and the first world war -- Revolution and repression : from red dawn to red scare -- "No right to exist anywhere on this earth" : anarchism in crisis -- Conclusion: "The whole world is turned into a frightful fortress".

Sommario/riassunto

From the 1880s through the 1940s, tens of thousands of first- and second-generation immigrants embraced the anarchist cause after arriving on American shores. Kenyon Zimmer explores why these migrants turned to anarchism, and how their adoption of its ideology shaped their identities, experiences, and actions. Zimmer focuses on Italians and Eastern European Jews in San Francisco, New York City, and



Paterson, New Jersey. Tracing the movement's changing fortunes from the pre-World War I era through the Spanish Civil War, Zimmer argues that anarchists, opposed to both American and Old World nationalism, severed all attachments to their nations of origin but also resisted assimilation into their host society. Their radical cosmopolitan outlook and identity instead embraced diversity and extended solidarity across national, ethnic, and racial divides. Though ultimately unable to withstand the onslaught of Americanism and other nationalisms, the anarchist movement nonetheless provided a shining example of a transnational collective identity delinked from the nation-state and racial hierarchies.