"An outstanding book that deftly moves from an analysis of economic, political, and social conditions to the human scale through intimate descriptions of the values, lives, and actions of the most famous anarchist assassins. In explaining anarchist violence, it shows that the assassins aimed at killing symbols of state power and not persons."--Spencer Di Scala, author of Europe's Long Century: Politics, Society, Culture, 1900-2000
"This is history at its best-meticulously researched, filled with insightful details, and highly provocative. Pernicone and Ottanelli's book effectively explodes prevailing assumptions about fin-de-siècle Italian anarchists, showing that far from the 'born criminals' and degenerate madmen depicted in the yellow press they were a varied group of quite ordinary members of the working class who resist easy generalizations. Coming out at a time of unprecedented misinformation, misinterpretation and anti-intellectualism, Assassins against the Old Order also powerfully reminds us that anarchist violence cannot be conflated with contemporary definitions of "terrorism" and that human behavior cannot be understood apart from the distinctive historical conditions and personal motivations of its actors. A must read for anyone interested in anarchism and, more broadly, the turbulent political history of late-nineteenth century Europe."--Marcella Bencivenni, author of Italian Immigrant Radical Culture: The Idealism of the 'Sovversivi' in the United States, 1890-1940