Session Abstract

Called “uncommonly intelligent” by the San Francisco Chronicle and an
“extraordinary history of the ‘original war on terrorism’” by Mike Davis,
Beverly Gage’s The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its
First Age of Terror is a compelling study that has forced readers to
reconsider the nature of class struggles, left-wing social movements,
violence, and repression from the Gilded Age to the immediate post-World
War I years. This snappily-written book examines some of the most
attention-grabbing events of the era: the Haymarket affair, William
McKinley’s murder, Eugene Debs’s protests and arrests, the Palmer Raids,
Emma Goldman’s deportation, the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and finally the
dramatic September 1920 Wall Street bombing. Perhaps most importantly,
readers of Gage’s study cannot avoid drawing connections between the first
Red Scare and today’s so-called war on terrorism.
Given the book’s significance, we believe that a panel on it is necessary.
This panel will bring together three scholars with different backgrounds
and interests.
We believe that a good-sized audience will attend this session, ask
pointed questions, and debate us in a spirit of collegiality. Thank you
for considering our proposal.