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Dynamite Terrorism and the Fin de Siècle

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Abstract

This chapter outlines how a number of technical and social changes combined to feed into the rise of dynamite terrorism in the late nineteenth century, something illustrated through three micro case studies looking at Irish nationalists, the Russian Peoples Will, and Anarchist groups.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jorpes, J Erik. 1959. “Alfred Nobel.” British Medical Journal.

  2. 2.

    Geels, Frank W. 2006. “Major System Change through Stepwise Reconfiguration: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Transformation of American Factory Production (1850–1930).” Technology in Society 28 (4): 445–476.

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    Meyers, Sydney, and Edward S. Shanley. 1990. “Industrial Explosives – A Brief History of Their Development and Use.” Journal of Hazardous Materials 23: 183–201.

  4. 4.

    This includes, for example, the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable, the establishment of press agencies, and, later, the emergence in 1876 of the Universal Postal Union. See Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 14.

  5. 5.

    Scientific American. 1876. “Infernal Machines.” Scientific American 34 (5) (January 29): 65.

  6. 6.

    Larabee, Ann. 2005. The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling Tale of a Confederate Spy, Con Artist, and Mass Murderer. Palgrave Macmillan.

  7. 7.

    Scientific American. “Infernal Machines.”

  8. 8.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 170.

  9. 9.

    See Laqueur, Walter. 1987. The Age of Terrorism. Little, Brown and Company.

  10. 10.

    Larabee. A Brief History of Terrorism in the United States. Pg 27.

  11. 11.

    (1882) United Irishman, 24 March 1882, as cited in Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 161.

  12. 12.

    Laqueur. The Age of Terrorism.

  13. 13.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 158.

  14. 14.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 163.

  15. 15.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 26.

  16. 16.

    Garrison, Arthur H. 2004. “Defining Terrorism: Philosophy of the Bomb, Propaganda by Deed and Change through Fear and Violence.” Criminal Justice Studies 17 (3) (September): 259–279.

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    Gill, Horgan & Lovelace, J. Improvised Explosive Device.

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    See R.L Stevenson’s 1885 novel The Dynamiter.

  19. 19.

    Porter, Bernard. 1987. The Origins of the Vigilant State: The London Metropolitan Police Special Branch Before the First World War Bernard Porter. Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

  20. 20.

    Clutterbuck, Lindsay. 2004. “The Progenitors of Terrorism: Russian Revolutionaries or Extreme Irish Republicans?” Terrorism and Political Violence 16 (1) (January): 154–181.

  21. 21.

    Clutterbuck. The Progenitors of Terrorism.

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    McConville, Seán. 2003. Irish Political Prisoners, 1848–1922: Theatres of War. Psychology Press. Pg 338.

  23. 23.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 151.

  24. 24.

    Larabee. A Brief History of Terrorism in the United States. Pg 27.

  25. 25.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 58.

  26. 26.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 58.

  27. 27.

    Manchester Guardian on 14 December 1867.

  28. 28.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 58.

  29. 29.

    The nation, as cited in: Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 72.

  30. 30.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 141.

  31. 31.

    Steward, Patrick, and Bryan P. McGovern. 2013. The Fenians: Irish Rebellion in the North Atlantic World, 1858–1876. Univ. of Tennessee. Pg 215.

  32. 32.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg 141.

  33. 33.

    Clutterbuck, L. (2004). The Progenitors of Terrorism: Russian Revolutionaries or Extreme Irish Republicans? Terrorism and Political Violence, 16(1), 154–181. doi:10.1080/09546550490457917.

  34. 34.

    See Whelehan, N. (2012). The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900. Cambridge University Press. Pg 141.

  35. 35.

    Davies, R. (2012). C-IED AtN Comparisons. Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2012global/Davies.pdf.

  36. 36.

    Clutterbuck. The Progenitors of Terrorism.

  37. 37.

    Clutterbuck. The Progenitors of Terrorism.

  38. 38.

    Clutterbuck. The Progenitors of Terrorism.

  39. 39.

    Gage, Beverly. 2009. The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror. Oxford University Press. Pg 45.

  40. 40.

    Chaliand, Gérard, and Arnaud Blin, ed. 2007. The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda. University of California Press. Pg 134.

  41. 41.

    Fleming, Marie. 2008. “Propaganda by the Deed: Terrorism and Anarchist Theory in Late Nineteenth‐century Europe.” Terrorism 4 (1–4) (January 9). Pg 4.

  42. 42.

    Ronfeldt, David, and William Sater. 1981. “The Mindsets of High-Technology Terrorists : Future Implications from an Historical Analog.” RAND Notes.

  43. 43.

    Croft, Lee B. 2006. Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich: Terrorist Rocket Pioneer. Lulu.com. Pg 25.

  44. 44.

    Croft. Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich. Pg 64.

  45. 45.

    See Laqueur, Walter. 2002. A History of Terrorism. Third Prin. Transaction Publishers. Pg 93; Porter, Cathy. 1976. Fathers and Daughters: Russian Women in Revolution. Virago. Pg 256.

  46. 46.

    Chaliand & Blin. The History of Terrorism. Pg 149.

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    Davies, Roger. 2011. “The Tsar and the Suicide Bomber.” Standing Well Back. http://www.standingwellback.com/home/2011/11/7/the-tsar-and-the-suicide-bomber.html.

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    Schaack, Michael J. 1889. Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe. Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed. The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy, and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators. F.J. Schulte. Pg 36.

  49. 49.

    There seems to be some disagreement as to who the second bomb thrower was, with some sources suggesting “Elnikoff” was responsible and other attributing this to Ignnatei.

  50. 50.

    This is only arguably an early case of suicide bombing because it remains unclear as to the extent to which the act can be seen as premeditated.

  51. 51.

    Chaliand & Blin. The History of Terrorism. Pg 151.

  52. 52.

    Laqueur. A History of Terrorism. Pg 43.

  53. 53.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

  54. 54.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite. Pg 125.

  55. 55.

    Merriman, John. 2009. The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siecle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company. Pg 95.

  56. 56.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

  57. 57.

    Donghaile, Deaglán Ó. 2011. “‘The Doctrine of Dynamite’: Anarchist Literature and Terrorist Violence.” In Blasted Literature, 136–178. Edinburgh University Press.

  58. 58.

    See, for example, “Lady Dynamite” and “La Ravachole”. Merriman. The Dynamite Club.

  59. 59.

    Dolnik, Adam. 2009. Understanding Terrorist Innovation: Technology, Tactics and Global Trends. Routledge. 156.

  60. 60.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite. Pg 18.

  61. 61.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

  62. 62.

    Jensen, Richard Bach. 2008. “Nineteenth Century Anarchist Terrorism: How Comparable to the Terrorism of Al-Qaeda?” Terrorism and Political Violence 20 (4): 589–596.

  63. 63.

    Merriman. The Dynamite Club. Pgs 73 & 76.

  64. 64.

    Merriman. The Dynamite Club. Pgs 70–83.

  65. 65.

    BBC. 2009. “Was This Man the First Terrorist of the Modern Age?” BBC Magazine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8263858.stm.

  66. 66.

    Whelehan. The Dynamiters. Pg xiv.

  67. 67.

    Reportedly Henry saw the company as responsible for the quelling of the miners’ strike. See Donghaile. Blasted Literature. Pg 96.

  68. 68.

    BBC. Was this man the first terrorist of the modern age.

  69. 69.

    Merriman. The Dynamite Club. Pg 94.

  70. 70.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

  71. 71.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

  72. 72.

    Merriman. The Dynamite Club.

  73. 73.

    Gelvin, James L. 2008. “Al-Qaeda and Anarchism: A Historian’s Reply to Terrorology: Response to Commentaries.” Terrorism and Political Violence 20 (4): 606–611. doi:10.1080/09546550802257390.

  74. 74.

    Jensen. Daggers, Rifles and Dynamite.

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  1. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    James Revill

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Revill, J. (2016). Dynamite Terrorism and the Fin de Siècle. In: Improvised Explosive Devices . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33834-7_2

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