I presented Anna Ghosh, my agent, with a proposal about an intimate history involving marginal politics and populated by obscure characters; she took a deep breath, helped me broaden its scope, and then worked untiringly to connect the project to the right people. At Walker & Co., Margaret Maloney was a diligent and enthusiastic editor; she adopted this book as her own and consistently pushed to make it better and more ambitious. Lea Beresford, Michelle Blankenship, and Mike O’Connor always made me feel that my work was their top professional priority, offering a commitment to this project that went far beyond my expectations. The latter stages of my research would have been impossible but for a generous grant from the National Institute of Social Sciences.
Committed archivists are essential to any work of nonfiction, and I was fortunate to benefit from the assistance of great researchers at numerous libraries. I would like to thank Eric Wakin and Susan Hamson at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Lea Osborne at the New York Public Library, Candace Falk at the Emma Goldman Papers Project, James Folts at the New York State Archives, Fernanda Perrone at Rutgers University Special Collections, Kathryn Kulpa at the Fall River Public Library, Bonnie Coles at the Library of Congress, Sara Mascia at the Sleepy Hollow Historical Society, and Patti Fink at the National Personnel Records Center. I was also aided by librarians at the UCLA Special Collections library, the Western Reserve Historical Society Library, and the International Institute of Social History, in Amsterdam. I thank Robert Plunkett and Thomas Krieg for their willingness to confide their family histories to me. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the generous assistance given to my research by the late Kenneth Rose at the Rockefeller Archive Center.
Important sections of this book were developed in Columbia University seminars conducted by Professors Elizabeth Blackmar, Kenneth T. Jackson, Alice Kessler-Harris, Sarah Phillips, and Simon Schama. Chelsea Szendi Schieder read the manuscript as it was being written, and then reread the whole after its completion. Her perspective was always sharp and inspiring, and she made the work seem fun. My fellow doctoral candidates in Columbia’s Department of History have provided guidance and solicitude in equal measure. Jessica Adler, Melissa Borja, Victoria Geduld, Elizabeth Hinton, Sarah Kirshen, Justin Jackson, Ben Lyons, Tamara Mann, Yuki Oda, Nick Osborne, Matt Spooner, Mason Williams, Mike Woodsworth—thank you all—and now get back to work!
A book on anarchism would be mere chaos without constructive feedback from critical readers. Zayd Dohrn, Rachel DeWoskin, Chesa Boudin, Jonah Hoyle, and Nick Miroff read parts of the manuscript and offered useful suggestions. Samuel G. Freedman, mentor and role model, read and edited the entire proposal—seemingly overnight—and his notes were keen and learned, as always. Billy Herbert and the profoundly missed Margaret Black Mirabelli were insightful and enthusiastic supporters. Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Kathy Boudin, and David Gilbert provided their political acumen and experience in ways that fundamentally shaped my understanding of the street demonstrations and prison conditions of the past. Sean and Hudson Jacke provided expert technological assistance. Harry Kellerman, Tom Meredith, Aisha Ayers, Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Carole Armel, Jane Hirschmann, Richard Levy, Michael Ratner, and Karen Ranucci all graciously offered their homes as places for me to write, research, and revise.
Finally, the people who have contributed the most to this effort: Eleanor Stein, my mother, whose erudition continually amazes me, and Jeff Jones, my father, a political thinker without peer, offered loving support and priceless encouragement at all times. My brother, Arthur Bluejay, not only had to read each and every word, but was often forced to read them out loud. More Powerful Than Dynamite never could have been written without him.