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The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective
A riveting account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York—and the detective duo who transformed policing to meet the threat—from the bestselling author of The Ghost Map
When Arthur Woods took command of the NYPD in April of 1914, the institution was still largely the corrupt, low-tech organization of the Tammany Hall era. To the extent the police were stopping crime—as opposed to committing it—their role had been almost entirely defined by physical the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes was largely outside their purview.
Woods was determined to change that, but he couldn’t have anticipated the maelstrom of violence that would test his science-based approach to policing. Within weeks of his tenure, New York City was engulfed in the most concentrated terrorism campaign in the nation’s history, a five-year period of relentless bombings, many of them perpetrated by the anarchist movement led by the legendary radicals Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.
Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and back to the nineteenth century—to Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite, to the development of forensic science in France, and to the assassination of Czar Alexander II, an event that propelled Berkman and Goldman’s emigration from Russia to America and inspired their conviction that the nation state must be destroyed. As the forces of anarchy and policing clash in New York City, we meet Inspector Joseph Faurot, a science-first detective who works closely with Woods in reforming the police force; Hans Schmidt, the psychotic killer priest whose capture turns Faurot into a household name; and Amadeo Polignani, the young Italian undercover detective who infiltrates the notorious Bresci Circle.
Johnson reveals a mostly forgotten period of political conviction, scientific discovery, assassination plots, bombings, undercover operations, and innovative sleuthing. The Infernal Machine is the complex pre-history of our current moment, when decentralized anarchist networks have once again taken to the streets to protest law enforcement abuses, right-wing militia groups have attacked government buildings, and surveillance is almost ubiquitous.
When Arthur Woods took command of the NYPD in April of 1914, the institution was still largely the corrupt, low-tech organization of the Tammany Hall era. To the extent the police were stopping crime—as opposed to committing it—their role had been almost entirely defined by physical the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes was largely outside their purview.
Woods was determined to change that, but he couldn’t have anticipated the maelstrom of violence that would test his science-based approach to policing. Within weeks of his tenure, New York City was engulfed in the most concentrated terrorism campaign in the nation’s history, a five-year period of relentless bombings, many of them perpetrated by the anarchist movement led by the legendary radicals Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.
Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and back to the nineteenth century—to Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite, to the development of forensic science in France, and to the assassination of Czar Alexander II, an event that propelled Berkman and Goldman’s emigration from Russia to America and inspired their conviction that the nation state must be destroyed. As the forces of anarchy and policing clash in New York City, we meet Inspector Joseph Faurot, a science-first detective who works closely with Woods in reforming the police force; Hans Schmidt, the psychotic killer priest whose capture turns Faurot into a household name; and Amadeo Polignani, the young Italian undercover detective who infiltrates the notorious Bresci Circle.
Johnson reveals a mostly forgotten period of political conviction, scientific discovery, assassination plots, bombings, undercover operations, and innovative sleuthing. The Infernal Machine is the complex pre-history of our current moment, when decentralized anarchist networks have once again taken to the streets to protest law enforcement abuses, right-wing militia groups have attacked government buildings, and surveillance is almost ubiquitous.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 2024
About the author
Steven Johnson
66 books1,832 followersSteven Johnson is the bestselling author of twelve books, including Enemy of All Mankind, Farsighted, Wonderland, How We Got to Now, Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad Is Good for You.
He's the host of the podcast American Innovations, and the host and co-creator of the PBS and BBC series How We Got to Now. Johnson lives in Marin County, California, and Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and three sons.
He's the host of the podcast American Innovations, and the host and co-creator of the PBS and BBC series How We Got to Now. Johnson lives in Marin County, California, and Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and three sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
May 21, 2024
This book is anarchy. No wait, this book is an octopus. Actually, it's both.
The Infernal Machine by Steven Johnson accomplishes something no other book before it has done. That is to describe the ideology of anarchy in a way that makes sense to me. As for the octopus part, Johnson weaves so many story lines together that it will make your head spin. Off the top of my head, he explains the aforementioned anarchist movement, the evolution of the U.S. detective, J. Edgar Hoover, dynamite, and the beginnings of a police state. This book is part history, true crime, and even thriller. How can Johnson balance all these topics without it feeling like a disjointed mess? I don't know, but he did it.
The major through-line of the story are the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. I certainly wouldn't call them the heroes of the story as they are, at best, hypocrites and, at worst, psychopaths. It depends how comfortable you are with blowing people up. Regardless, their characters are not the point. Their belief system, anarchy, is. Johnson masterfully paints a picture of a movement that has some interesting ideas even if they are never fully understood, implemented, or even agreed upon by its adherents. Goldman and Berkman lay at the center of all the tentacles of the octopus even when they are not actively taking part. It makes for a story which covers a lot of ground while being extremely compact and engaging on every page.
In short, this will be on a lot of people's "best of 2024" lists (including mine!).
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
The Infernal Machine by Steven Johnson accomplishes something no other book before it has done. That is to describe the ideology of anarchy in a way that makes sense to me. As for the octopus part, Johnson weaves so many story lines together that it will make your head spin. Off the top of my head, he explains the aforementioned anarchist movement, the evolution of the U.S. detective, J. Edgar Hoover, dynamite, and the beginnings of a police state. This book is part history, true crime, and even thriller. How can Johnson balance all these topics without it feeling like a disjointed mess? I don't know, but he did it.
The major through-line of the story are the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. I certainly wouldn't call them the heroes of the story as they are, at best, hypocrites and, at worst, psychopaths. It depends how comfortable you are with blowing people up. Regardless, their characters are not the point. Their belief system, anarchy, is. Johnson masterfully paints a picture of a movement that has some interesting ideas even if they are never fully understood, implemented, or even agreed upon by its adherents. Goldman and Berkman lay at the center of all the tentacles of the octopus even when they are not actively taking part. It makes for a story which covers a lot of ground while being extremely compact and engaging on every page.
In short, this will be on a lot of people's "best of 2024" lists (including mine!).
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
June 30, 2024
"Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty" Emma Goldman
It always makes me roll my eyes when I hear people say that " Things today or the worst they've ever been" " Politics has never been this violent". It's hilarious...I mean 4 President's were assassinated and several others were nearly assassinated. It might seem like terrorism was invented in the 1990s but terrorism has always existed....Slavery is terrorism...Jim Crow was terrorism. The 1916 explosion on Black Tom Island was the most intense blast in NYC until 9/11. And the 1919 coordinated bombings carried out by anarchists in NYC were considered the biggest terrorist attack on NYC until (say it with me) 9/11.
The Infernal Machine, which refers to dynamite is about the anarchist movement of the early 1900s. Mostly made up of Russian immigrants, these anarchist were freedom fighters....who occasionally blew shit up. They never intend to hurt or kill innocent people, only destroy property or kill the American millionaire class. These rich pieces of shit like Andrew Carnegie used Pinkerton detectives to violently break up labor strikes. They used law enforcement along with the state to destroy unions... something that's still happening today.
While I personally believe in the right to blow shit up for the greater good....the police than as today disagreed. The NYPD developed or started using many things that are now considered everyday parts of "fighting crime," like electronic surveillance, fingerprint analysis, and mugshots. The police state that it is current day America began with the pursuit of anarchist.
The Infernal Machine is a thrilling and well researched history of freedom fighters and the cops who sought to bring them down. We also get a cameo from one of the worst men in the history of law enforcement J.Edgar Hoover. I'm obviously fairly radical in my politics so I was rooting for the anarchist but even if you love the police I think you'll enjoy this book. The author covers the major figures on both sides of the law.
A must read for all my History lovers!
It always makes me roll my eyes when I hear people say that " Things today or the worst they've ever been" " Politics has never been this violent". It's hilarious...I mean 4 President's were assassinated and several others were nearly assassinated. It might seem like terrorism was invented in the 1990s but terrorism has always existed....Slavery is terrorism...Jim Crow was terrorism. The 1916 explosion on Black Tom Island was the most intense blast in NYC until 9/11. And the 1919 coordinated bombings carried out by anarchists in NYC were considered the biggest terrorist attack on NYC until (say it with me) 9/11.
The Infernal Machine, which refers to dynamite is about the anarchist movement of the early 1900s. Mostly made up of Russian immigrants, these anarchist were freedom fighters....who occasionally blew shit up. They never intend to hurt or kill innocent people, only destroy property or kill the American millionaire class. These rich pieces of shit like Andrew Carnegie used Pinkerton detectives to violently break up labor strikes. They used law enforcement along with the state to destroy unions... something that's still happening today.
While I personally believe in the right to blow shit up for the greater good....the police than as today disagreed. The NYPD developed or started using many things that are now considered everyday parts of "fighting crime," like electronic surveillance, fingerprint analysis, and mugshots. The police state that it is current day America began with the pursuit of anarchist.
The Infernal Machine is a thrilling and well researched history of freedom fighters and the cops who sought to bring them down. We also get a cameo from one of the worst men in the history of law enforcement J.Edgar Hoover. I'm obviously fairly radical in my politics so I was rooting for the anarchist but even if you love the police I think you'll enjoy this book. The author covers the major figures on both sides of the law.
A must read for all my History lovers!
April 30, 2024
Wonderful blend of forensic history, portraits of the players, and intriguing science
What a captivating read! The author did not even wait until Chapter One; he lured me in with the epigraphs, especially a quote from Oscar Wilde touting the virtues of disobedience, a prime characteristic of the anarchist movement.
Johnson’s description of the anarchists, their motivations and aspirations, and the techniques they used to try to achieve their goals was both enlightening and somewhat frightening. Like most people I was aware of the anarchy movement but had not realized how widespread and organized it was. The anarchy movement was not the only factor that led to the development of modern policing, but the challenges this movement presented for law enforcement and other government officials were certainly an important motivator.
As a fan of mysteries and police procedurals, my main attraction to this book originally was the topic of the development of modern forensic and policing techniques, and I learned a lot about the techniques and some of the science behind them. Many classic police and crime-fighting techniques are much newer than I would have guessed, like fingerprinting, and others depend on nineteenth-century inventions like photography. Other important inventions, like Alfred Nobel’s “infernal machine” , dynamite, which he intended for industrial purposes, were coopted by the anarchists to further their cause. It was also interesting to hear about the activities and excesses of groups like the Pinkerton detectives.
The book gave me good personal introductions to major figures. I felt sorry for Nobel, who saw how his contribution to modern industry was being misused. In addition to Nobel, readers meet important figures in the anarchy movement like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. It was intriguing to hear about the participation of women in this movement, many of them drawn in by the goal of peace (despite the hardly peaceful techniques the anarchists used). Their lifestyles certainly fit their political philosophy. It was interesting also to learn about Alphonse Bertillon, a French police officer who first developed an identification system based on physical measurements for use in law enforcement.
This was the first book I have read by Steven Johnson, but it certainly will not be the last!
I received an advance review copy of this book from Edelweiss and Crown Publishing.
What a captivating read! The author did not even wait until Chapter One; he lured me in with the epigraphs, especially a quote from Oscar Wilde touting the virtues of disobedience, a prime characteristic of the anarchist movement.
Johnson’s description of the anarchists, their motivations and aspirations, and the techniques they used to try to achieve their goals was both enlightening and somewhat frightening. Like most people I was aware of the anarchy movement but had not realized how widespread and organized it was. The anarchy movement was not the only factor that led to the development of modern policing, but the challenges this movement presented for law enforcement and other government officials were certainly an important motivator.
As a fan of mysteries and police procedurals, my main attraction to this book originally was the topic of the development of modern forensic and policing techniques, and I learned a lot about the techniques and some of the science behind them. Many classic police and crime-fighting techniques are much newer than I would have guessed, like fingerprinting, and others depend on nineteenth-century inventions like photography. Other important inventions, like Alfred Nobel’s “infernal machine” , dynamite, which he intended for industrial purposes, were coopted by the anarchists to further their cause. It was also interesting to hear about the activities and excesses of groups like the Pinkerton detectives.
The book gave me good personal introductions to major figures. I felt sorry for Nobel, who saw how his contribution to modern industry was being misused. In addition to Nobel, readers meet important figures in the anarchy movement like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. It was intriguing to hear about the participation of women in this movement, many of them drawn in by the goal of peace (despite the hardly peaceful techniques the anarchists used). Their lifestyles certainly fit their political philosophy. It was interesting also to learn about Alphonse Bertillon, a French police officer who first developed an identification system based on physical measurements for use in law enforcement.
This was the first book I have read by Steven Johnson, but it certainly will not be the last!
I received an advance review copy of this book from Edelweiss and Crown Publishing.
June 17, 2024
I'm a long-time fan of Steven Johnson's work. His books explore and tie-together pieces of history that aren't the usual episodes we all know about. This may be his most ambitious project yet - bringing together the invention of dynamite, the origins of modern policing methods, the anarchist movement, and capitalism. He usually does this through the narrative technique of following key players in all the fields, from the nascent NYPD bomb squad to the originator of the Nobel prizes. This book was highly informative, vastly entertaining, and gave me some brilliant villain motives I might have to consider for my own books. Well done!
June 29, 2024
Steven Johnson's The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective reminds me a bit of an episode of James Burke's Connections television series. It begins at one place—Alfred Nobel developing TNT—and moves out from there through anarchy, terrorism, police methodology, and the government-law enforcement relationship as we now know it. It also offers interesting side excursions to things like phrenology and NY City police politics. And Teddy Roosevelt makes an appearance. Really, if this doesn't pique your interest, what on earth does?
Johnson's prose is crisp, bringing to life key players in this chain of events and individuals. Claims are accompanied by well0-chosen evidence. Johnson also manages to insert a great many engaging narrative sections that accompany the fact-based prose. In other words, this read is a treat, through and through.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
Johnson's prose is crisp, bringing to life key players in this chain of events and individuals. Claims are accompanied by well0-chosen evidence. Johnson also manages to insert a great many engaging narrative sections that accompany the fact-based prose. In other words, this read is a treat, through and through.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
May 18, 2024
This is mostly the story of the Anarchist violence in America between 1890 and 1920 and the development of police tactics to fight it. Johnson also describes Alfred Nobel's career in explosives, the "Black Hand" Italian gangsters in NYC, the rise of the Pinkerton detectives as de facto national police, the union struggle in the steel industry, and the battle in the NYPD between old school cops and modern reformers.
The book is filled with interesting stories and people. The assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick, the Crispi trial in NYC where fingerprints were used for the first time to get a conviction, and the case of the "killer priest" Hans Schmidt, are all great stories.
Emma Goldman is the center of the story. She was an amazingly strong and fascinating woman. Peter Kropotkin, the Russian anarchist led an amazing life. Johnson mentions, in passing, that the trans Siberian railroad was built along the path that Kropotkin discovered on an expedition to Siberia when he was 20 years old. Owen Egan was a NY fireman who defused over 7000 thousand bombs during his career. He only failed twice, which is why he was missing two fingers.
The book is full of fascinating stuff, but it doesn't really have much of a narrative structure. The cast is so broad, and the subjects covered are so diverse that it feels like one story after another more than a long narrative.
The book is filled with interesting stories and people. The assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick, the Crispi trial in NYC where fingerprints were used for the first time to get a conviction, and the case of the "killer priest" Hans Schmidt, are all great stories.
Emma Goldman is the center of the story. She was an amazingly strong and fascinating woman. Peter Kropotkin, the Russian anarchist led an amazing life. Johnson mentions, in passing, that the trans Siberian railroad was built along the path that Kropotkin discovered on an expedition to Siberia when he was 20 years old. Owen Egan was a NY fireman who defused over 7000 thousand bombs during his career. He only failed twice, which is why he was missing two fingers.
The book is full of fascinating stuff, but it doesn't really have much of a narrative structure. The cast is so broad, and the subjects covered are so diverse that it feels like one story after another more than a long narrative.
June 2, 2024
The invention of dynamite, anarchy, the modern detective, the police state, and some J. Edgar Hoover thrown in - Johnson continues his string of fascinating topics and brilliant writing.
June 17, 2024
Really interesting story of how anarchist, dynamite created what we know of policing.
June 23, 2024
"Why should the oligarchs have a monopoly on political violence? "
May 29, 2024
ANARCHIST BOMBINGS AND THE RISE OF THE MODERN DETECTIVE
A century ago, in the wake of World War I, a large bomb detonated on Wall Street. Thirty-eight people died, and hundreds more suffered injuries. Although no one claimed responsibility, authorities concluded that anarchists had set it off. And no wonder. For decades, anarchists had terrorized Western society, assassinating heads of state (including President William McKinley) and sowing chaos at public gatherings. In the late 1800s, police appeared powerless to strike back. But after the turn of the century, police reform and innovation began producing the tools to investigate anarchist bombings. And later, with the creation of the Bureau of Investigation that later became the FBI, federal action proved decisive. Author Steven Johnson chronicles both strands of this conflict in his superb period history, The Infernal Machine.
A COMPLEX STORY, SIMPLY TOLD
Steven Johnson is a gifted storyteller. In The Infernal Machine, he manages to tell a tale spanning three decades, two continents, and hundreds of actors, and make it read like a true-crime account of a serial killer. The key lies in his focus on seven colorful individual characters. Three are leading anarchists, three police officials—and Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
THE SEVEN LEADING CHARACTERS
Johnson grounds his story in the life of Alfred Nobel (1833-96) and his invention of dynamite in 1867. Although Nobel is far better known today as the funder of the Nobel Prizes, which he endowed in his will, in his time he was notorious for having provided an instrument of death to the growing anarchist movement. However, Johnson makes clear that Nobel’s invention also made possible the construction of much of the infrastructure we take for granted today, including the transcontinental railroads in the United States and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Thus, his impact in enabling construction was ultimately far greater than anything else he accomplished in his lifetime.
In The Infernal Machine, Nobel joins six other individuals as leading characters.
THE ANARCHISTS
PETER KROPOTKIN
With its roots in the Enlightenment, anarchism has no single creator. But the movement—sometimes described as the libertarian left of socialism—found its philosophical leader in a Russian aristocrat named Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921). Kropotkin rejected his title of prince and went to work as a scientist, winning renown in several fields. In his survey work in Siberia, he found a long-hidden route through the mountains that made the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway possible. But he was best known as the leading theorist of the anarchist movement. He even wrote the article on anarchism for the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. And he was the spiritual father of generations of anarchist activists to follow. In the United States, his most notorious adherents were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
EMMA GOLDMAN
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) became the face of anarchism in America early in the twentieth century. Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Lithuania, then a part of the Russian Empire, she emigrated to the US as a young woman. The Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886 radicalized her. Though with little formal schooling, she read extensively and became a magazine publisher and editor and an orator, electrifying crowds of thousands in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth. She was known as an advocate of women’s rights and free love as well as an anarchist theorist. But her one-time affair and lifetime friendship with the more radical Alexander Berkman added to her notoriety.
ALEXANDER BERKMAN
Alexander Berkman (1870-1936) was, like Goldman, born into a Jewish family in Lithuania but emigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen. He became famous four years later for attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). Frick was the manager of Andrew Carnegie’s massive iron and steel empire. Berkman identified him as responsible for the loss of sixteen lives in the Homestead strike. He served 14 years in prison for the deed. Although Goldman was herself opposed to such violence, she never once publicly called him to task for the action.
THE POLICE
Johnson frames his story as the intersection of two historic developments. The emergence of radical anarchism in Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, And the increasing use of information science as investigative tools by police on both sides of the Atlantic. But his focus is on events in the USA although both anarchism and police reform developed more rapidly in Europe than across the Atlantic.
JOSEPH FAUROT
After a visit to Scotland Yard in 1906, NYPD Detective Joseph Faurot (1872-1942) adopted the use of what we now call “mug shots.” More famously, he also introduced fingerprinting in the United States. In the absence of computers to scan thousands of fingerprints in search of a match, he employed a system designed in France to classify fingerprints into dozens of categories by the patterns of their whorls and ridges, thus enabling rapid searches. Faurot worked closely with Arthur Hale Woods and other leading proponents of police reform and ultimately rose to become a deputy commissioner of police in New York.
ARTHUR HALE WOODS
Arthur Hale Woods (1870-1942) was the scion of a wealthy Boston family, attended Harvard and the University of Berlin, and became a schoolmaster at Groton. There one of his students was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he became acquainted with Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of FDR’s cousin Teddy. He became interested in sociology and took on a job as a newspaper reporter. His ideas for police reform brought him to the attention of the New York City Police Commissioner, who appointed him as his deputy.
Seven years later, under a reform mayor, Woods himself became police commissioner and introduced extensive changes into the NYPD. Woods was at the helm as anarchist bombings stunned the city. He led a successful effort to suppress the anarchists. But his work was local to New York City, unconnected to police efforts almost everywhere else in the country. Only in 1921, three years after Woods left the NYPD, did the federal government recognize the need for a nationwide effort with the creation of the Bureau of Investigation (later renamed the FBI).
J. EDGAR HOOVER
As an eighteen-year-old, J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) went to work as a messenger at the Library of Congress. There, he became enchanted with the sophisticated filing system. What he learned became the foundation of the massive files he maintained, first at the Bureau of Investigation as deputy director (1921-24) and director (1924-35), and then at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1935-72). Johnson describes in fascinating detail the nature of Hoover’s filing system, which became the basis of the bureau’s success in combating organized crime, Nazi sabotage and subversion in the 1930s and 40s, and his later, often illegal, pursuit of Communists, civil rights activists, and homosexuals.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steven Johnson is an American popular science author who is the author of fourteen books. He was born in Washington, DC, in 1968 and educated at Brown University, where he earned his BA in semiotics, and at Columbia University, which granted him an MA in English literature. Johnson is also active on television and online, having created three influential websites and a podcast, American Innovations.
A century ago, in the wake of World War I, a large bomb detonated on Wall Street. Thirty-eight people died, and hundreds more suffered injuries. Although no one claimed responsibility, authorities concluded that anarchists had set it off. And no wonder. For decades, anarchists had terrorized Western society, assassinating heads of state (including President William McKinley) and sowing chaos at public gatherings. In the late 1800s, police appeared powerless to strike back. But after the turn of the century, police reform and innovation began producing the tools to investigate anarchist bombings. And later, with the creation of the Bureau of Investigation that later became the FBI, federal action proved decisive. Author Steven Johnson chronicles both strands of this conflict in his superb period history, The Infernal Machine.
A COMPLEX STORY, SIMPLY TOLD
Steven Johnson is a gifted storyteller. In The Infernal Machine, he manages to tell a tale spanning three decades, two continents, and hundreds of actors, and make it read like a true-crime account of a serial killer. The key lies in his focus on seven colorful individual characters. Three are leading anarchists, three police officials—and Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
THE SEVEN LEADING CHARACTERS
Johnson grounds his story in the life of Alfred Nobel (1833-96) and his invention of dynamite in 1867. Although Nobel is far better known today as the funder of the Nobel Prizes, which he endowed in his will, in his time he was notorious for having provided an instrument of death to the growing anarchist movement. However, Johnson makes clear that Nobel’s invention also made possible the construction of much of the infrastructure we take for granted today, including the transcontinental railroads in the United States and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Thus, his impact in enabling construction was ultimately far greater than anything else he accomplished in his lifetime.
In The Infernal Machine, Nobel joins six other individuals as leading characters.
THE ANARCHISTS
PETER KROPOTKIN
With its roots in the Enlightenment, anarchism has no single creator. But the movement—sometimes described as the libertarian left of socialism—found its philosophical leader in a Russian aristocrat named Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921). Kropotkin rejected his title of prince and went to work as a scientist, winning renown in several fields. In his survey work in Siberia, he found a long-hidden route through the mountains that made the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway possible. But he was best known as the leading theorist of the anarchist movement. He even wrote the article on anarchism for the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. And he was the spiritual father of generations of anarchist activists to follow. In the United States, his most notorious adherents were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
EMMA GOLDMAN
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) became the face of anarchism in America early in the twentieth century. Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Lithuania, then a part of the Russian Empire, she emigrated to the US as a young woman. The Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886 radicalized her. Though with little formal schooling, she read extensively and became a magazine publisher and editor and an orator, electrifying crowds of thousands in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth. She was known as an advocate of women’s rights and free love as well as an anarchist theorist. But her one-time affair and lifetime friendship with the more radical Alexander Berkman added to her notoriety.
ALEXANDER BERKMAN
Alexander Berkman (1870-1936) was, like Goldman, born into a Jewish family in Lithuania but emigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen. He became famous four years later for attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). Frick was the manager of Andrew Carnegie’s massive iron and steel empire. Berkman identified him as responsible for the loss of sixteen lives in the Homestead strike. He served 14 years in prison for the deed. Although Goldman was herself opposed to such violence, she never once publicly called him to task for the action.
THE POLICE
Johnson frames his story as the intersection of two historic developments. The emergence of radical anarchism in Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, And the increasing use of information science as investigative tools by police on both sides of the Atlantic. But his focus is on events in the USA although both anarchism and police reform developed more rapidly in Europe than across the Atlantic.
JOSEPH FAUROT
After a visit to Scotland Yard in 1906, NYPD Detective Joseph Faurot (1872-1942) adopted the use of what we now call “mug shots.” More famously, he also introduced fingerprinting in the United States. In the absence of computers to scan thousands of fingerprints in search of a match, he employed a system designed in France to classify fingerprints into dozens of categories by the patterns of their whorls and ridges, thus enabling rapid searches. Faurot worked closely with Arthur Hale Woods and other leading proponents of police reform and ultimately rose to become a deputy commissioner of police in New York.
ARTHUR HALE WOODS
Arthur Hale Woods (1870-1942) was the scion of a wealthy Boston family, attended Harvard and the University of Berlin, and became a schoolmaster at Groton. There one of his students was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he became acquainted with Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of FDR’s cousin Teddy. He became interested in sociology and took on a job as a newspaper reporter. His ideas for police reform brought him to the attention of the New York City Police Commissioner, who appointed him as his deputy.
Seven years later, under a reform mayor, Woods himself became police commissioner and introduced extensive changes into the NYPD. Woods was at the helm as anarchist bombings stunned the city. He led a successful effort to suppress the anarchists. But his work was local to New York City, unconnected to police efforts almost everywhere else in the country. Only in 1921, three years after Woods left the NYPD, did the federal government recognize the need for a nationwide effort with the creation of the Bureau of Investigation (later renamed the FBI).
J. EDGAR HOOVER
As an eighteen-year-old, J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) went to work as a messenger at the Library of Congress. There, he became enchanted with the sophisticated filing system. What he learned became the foundation of the massive files he maintained, first at the Bureau of Investigation as deputy director (1921-24) and director (1924-35), and then at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1935-72). Johnson describes in fascinating detail the nature of Hoover’s filing system, which became the basis of the bureau’s success in combating organized crime, Nazi sabotage and subversion in the 1930s and 40s, and his later, often illegal, pursuit of Communists, civil rights activists, and homosexuals.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steven Johnson is an American popular science author who is the author of fourteen books. He was born in Washington, DC, in 1968 and educated at Brown University, where he earned his BA in semiotics, and at Columbia University, which granted him an MA in English literature. Johnson is also active on television and online, having created three influential websites and a podcast, American Innovations.
July 9, 2024
Spanning decades, this book documents the cat and mouse game between Anarchists fighting against a top-down hierarchal society in the late 1800 - early 1900s and the burgeoning surveillance state desperate to end the political violence. This book dumps tons of information in a genuinely entertaining way... teaching the reader about an inflection point in human history and showing how the fallout dictates life today.
Anarchism in this period meant something more pure and idealistic than most people would think today. It stood for a societal structure built around mutual aid- cooperation, people and communities specializing and helping each other, no state control over the people. It was pushing against the command and control capitalist structure that was dominating society post industrial revolution. The stockyards, railroad and steel companies, helmed by billionaires at the expense of the masses was a sign of the complete failure of society to structure itself in a way that aligns with any sense of humanity. People were forced to work in inhumane conditions for long hours, 6 days a week for pennies while the tycoons profited without lifting a finger. These barrons worked with the state, exemplified by the Pinkertons (a private army) and national guard, to rail against unions and worker protections. It was under these horrible conditions that the likes of Emma Goldman and Alex Berkman rose to prominence.
These revolutionary figures came of age in a period of political violence, where world leaders were getting murdererd by the dozens (a stretch where 3 out of 7 US presidents were assassinated!!). Inspired by the assassination of a czar in Russia who did not live up to his revolutionary promises and a series of violent acts against striking labor unions, notably the Haymarket Riot, these young intellectuals moved to NYC and joined the good fight.
This politically tumultuous period also coincided with the creation and dissemination of dynamite-a world-alerting invention that spurred industrialization and murder at a scale previously impossible. It broke the state-owned monopoly on violence. Anyone with a vendetta could blow up an apartment, church, police station etc. Dynamite was revolutionary! It allowed for crosscountry railroad, the development of subway systems. It changed the world of construction and industry... and also led to terrorism. The story of Alfred Nobel is fascinating. He made a killing off dynamite but was always linked to its dangerous and evil uses- never the industrious ones. Papers wrongly published his obituary before he was dead and he was painted in a bad light. He used his fortune to develop the noble prizes (funding in perpetuity) including the peace prize!
Anarchists, radicalized by robber barons leveraging the state to suppress worker rights and unions, turned to violence to advocate for their cause. The author argues that these were the first instances of terrorism - violence against innocent civilians to advance a political agenda- in history!
Police forces around the world quickly realized that they needed a new, more advanced form of policing to fight this new wave of crime. Brute force and reactive policing wont stop these bombs from going off. Beginning with the Bertillion method in France, the world sprang forward into the surveillance age. For the first time in history police forces were collecting data and using scientific approaches to crime fighting. They used fingerprints, photographs and sophisticated collating and filing systems to log and ID criminals.
Arthur Woods, a former professor and progressive thinker, spearheaded these advancements in the NYPD. He developed undercover units that infiltrated anarchist and Italian terror groups, he wiretapped phones and he partnered with a young detective named Faurot to create the ID burearu. One notable story shows how a young detective embedded himself with an Italian terror group who were planning to blow up St. Patricks cathedral. This is the early early stages of what we now think of as the surveillance state. J Edgar Hoover pushed this even further creating this type of criminal log at the national level.
This is a tale of tragic irony. People like Peter Kropotkin (one of the grandfathers of anarchist thinking), Berkman and Goldman were fighting for a decentralized non-hierarchal society that valued humanity and aid over profits. They either outright promoted violence or at least tacitly condoned it (Berkman tried to assassinate a tycoon, Berkman and to a lesser extent Goldman basically supported the man that killed president McKinley) in the name of their cause. This led to a new, more oppressive form of policing that would turn their worst nightmares into a reality. People were surveilled and controlled at the national level. This new system directly resulted in Berkman and Goldman being deported back to Russia. It is not hard to draw a line from these thinkers directly to the patriot act and Snowden.
This violence combined with suppression from the state (jailing protestors, the Espionage act allowing all publications to be seized by the post office, deportation), resulted in the end of anarchism as a legitimate alternative form of structure. And it isnt crazy to think this movement could've changed the world! Factories were new! They just invented phones!
Really interesting book.
Anarchism in this period meant something more pure and idealistic than most people would think today. It stood for a societal structure built around mutual aid- cooperation, people and communities specializing and helping each other, no state control over the people. It was pushing against the command and control capitalist structure that was dominating society post industrial revolution. The stockyards, railroad and steel companies, helmed by billionaires at the expense of the masses was a sign of the complete failure of society to structure itself in a way that aligns with any sense of humanity. People were forced to work in inhumane conditions for long hours, 6 days a week for pennies while the tycoons profited without lifting a finger. These barrons worked with the state, exemplified by the Pinkertons (a private army) and national guard, to rail against unions and worker protections. It was under these horrible conditions that the likes of Emma Goldman and Alex Berkman rose to prominence.
These revolutionary figures came of age in a period of political violence, where world leaders were getting murdererd by the dozens (a stretch where 3 out of 7 US presidents were assassinated!!). Inspired by the assassination of a czar in Russia who did not live up to his revolutionary promises and a series of violent acts against striking labor unions, notably the Haymarket Riot, these young intellectuals moved to NYC and joined the good fight.
This politically tumultuous period also coincided with the creation and dissemination of dynamite-a world-alerting invention that spurred industrialization and murder at a scale previously impossible. It broke the state-owned monopoly on violence. Anyone with a vendetta could blow up an apartment, church, police station etc. Dynamite was revolutionary! It allowed for crosscountry railroad, the development of subway systems. It changed the world of construction and industry... and also led to terrorism. The story of Alfred Nobel is fascinating. He made a killing off dynamite but was always linked to its dangerous and evil uses- never the industrious ones. Papers wrongly published his obituary before he was dead and he was painted in a bad light. He used his fortune to develop the noble prizes (funding in perpetuity) including the peace prize!
Anarchists, radicalized by robber barons leveraging the state to suppress worker rights and unions, turned to violence to advocate for their cause. The author argues that these were the first instances of terrorism - violence against innocent civilians to advance a political agenda- in history!
Police forces around the world quickly realized that they needed a new, more advanced form of policing to fight this new wave of crime. Brute force and reactive policing wont stop these bombs from going off. Beginning with the Bertillion method in France, the world sprang forward into the surveillance age. For the first time in history police forces were collecting data and using scientific approaches to crime fighting. They used fingerprints, photographs and sophisticated collating and filing systems to log and ID criminals.
Arthur Woods, a former professor and progressive thinker, spearheaded these advancements in the NYPD. He developed undercover units that infiltrated anarchist and Italian terror groups, he wiretapped phones and he partnered with a young detective named Faurot to create the ID burearu. One notable story shows how a young detective embedded himself with an Italian terror group who were planning to blow up St. Patricks cathedral. This is the early early stages of what we now think of as the surveillance state. J Edgar Hoover pushed this even further creating this type of criminal log at the national level.
This is a tale of tragic irony. People like Peter Kropotkin (one of the grandfathers of anarchist thinking), Berkman and Goldman were fighting for a decentralized non-hierarchal society that valued humanity and aid over profits. They either outright promoted violence or at least tacitly condoned it (Berkman tried to assassinate a tycoon, Berkman and to a lesser extent Goldman basically supported the man that killed president McKinley) in the name of their cause. This led to a new, more oppressive form of policing that would turn their worst nightmares into a reality. People were surveilled and controlled at the national level. This new system directly resulted in Berkman and Goldman being deported back to Russia. It is not hard to draw a line from these thinkers directly to the patriot act and Snowden.
This violence combined with suppression from the state (jailing protestors, the Espionage act allowing all publications to be seized by the post office, deportation), resulted in the end of anarchism as a legitimate alternative form of structure. And it isnt crazy to think this movement could've changed the world! Factories were new! They just invented phones!
Really interesting book.
April 8, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Crown Publishing for an advanced copy of this book that looks at dynamite, anarchists, the rise of the police state, and the wealth gap, and much more.
Governments love control. Governments love to control who comes in, who gets out, and what they might be bringing in with them, especially when it comes to knowledge or ideas. In my time I have seem a lot of rights that once seemed pretty inalienable, fade away, and more and more of our privacy and our right to be who were are become something that we should be willing to give up for control. Control equals safety. We can keep you safe, but we need your fingerprints, a document to show who you are, and what you might be doing. Outsiders want to steal our freedom, but we seem pretty good at doing this ourselves. Many of the arguments one hears about outsiders, and how the cops are handcuffed by rules bad guys don't have to follow appeared at a time of strive in America. People were raging about just and unjust wars, wealth disparity, violence in the streets, the growth of a police state and worker's rights. Proving that history has a habit of repeating, as I am discussing America over 100 years ago, when anarchists were screaming for the death of the business class and the rights of people, and dynamite had become the great equalizer in the battle between the powerful and powerless. Writer Steven Johnson looks at these times, their origins, and the changes in policing that came from it in his book, The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective.
The book begins with a look at the humble origins of both Alfred Nobel and his troubled invention dynamite. Nobel thought the best of dynamite, seeing something that could help make mines, allow construction of dams and tunnels, all by blowing things up. What Nobel did not consider was the risk to people in using an unstable explosive like dynamite either accidentally, or as became clearer the risk to people on purpose. Dynamite, as made the weak suddenly powerful, and the powerful could be blown into pieces. The book travels to Russia where the first suicide bomber kills Tsar Alexander II changing history in many ways. Johnson looks at the rise of anarchist movement, with two people who left Russia after the killing of the Tsar, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, and spread their new ideas to America. In Berkman's case he might have done more. Johnson also looks at the changes in policing in America, especially in New York City where the police were largely corrupt, and incompetent. Bombs especially in the years before World War I were used by anarchists, and crime members, forcing the police to adopt new methods and new thinking to combat this explosive combination.
I have long been a fan of Steven Johnson starting with The Ghost Map, which was one of my favorite books, and one I recommend a lot to customers. I think The Infernal Machine is even better. There is so much in his book, history, philosophy, a love story among anarchists, and a lot of information that I never knew. Johnson covers the rise of the anarchist movement, the history of dynamite, labor relations, even the discovery of fingerprinting along with a different look at J. Edgar Hoover, as nerdy librarian. The book never drags, has many cliffhanger moments, and though there are a lot of characters never gets lost or bogged down. I can't imagine the amount of research Johnson had to do, but it was worth it for such an excellent and interesting book.
Recommended for fans of history, police history, New York history. There is a lot in this book to like. If one likes to learn new things while reading, or just have fun reading, this is without a doubt the perfect read. I can't wait to share this with people.
Governments love control. Governments love to control who comes in, who gets out, and what they might be bringing in with them, especially when it comes to knowledge or ideas. In my time I have seem a lot of rights that once seemed pretty inalienable, fade away, and more and more of our privacy and our right to be who were are become something that we should be willing to give up for control. Control equals safety. We can keep you safe, but we need your fingerprints, a document to show who you are, and what you might be doing. Outsiders want to steal our freedom, but we seem pretty good at doing this ourselves. Many of the arguments one hears about outsiders, and how the cops are handcuffed by rules bad guys don't have to follow appeared at a time of strive in America. People were raging about just and unjust wars, wealth disparity, violence in the streets, the growth of a police state and worker's rights. Proving that history has a habit of repeating, as I am discussing America over 100 years ago, when anarchists were screaming for the death of the business class and the rights of people, and dynamite had become the great equalizer in the battle between the powerful and powerless. Writer Steven Johnson looks at these times, their origins, and the changes in policing that came from it in his book, The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective.
The book begins with a look at the humble origins of both Alfred Nobel and his troubled invention dynamite. Nobel thought the best of dynamite, seeing something that could help make mines, allow construction of dams and tunnels, all by blowing things up. What Nobel did not consider was the risk to people in using an unstable explosive like dynamite either accidentally, or as became clearer the risk to people on purpose. Dynamite, as made the weak suddenly powerful, and the powerful could be blown into pieces. The book travels to Russia where the first suicide bomber kills Tsar Alexander II changing history in many ways. Johnson looks at the rise of anarchist movement, with two people who left Russia after the killing of the Tsar, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, and spread their new ideas to America. In Berkman's case he might have done more. Johnson also looks at the changes in policing in America, especially in New York City where the police were largely corrupt, and incompetent. Bombs especially in the years before World War I were used by anarchists, and crime members, forcing the police to adopt new methods and new thinking to combat this explosive combination.
I have long been a fan of Steven Johnson starting with The Ghost Map, which was one of my favorite books, and one I recommend a lot to customers. I think The Infernal Machine is even better. There is so much in his book, history, philosophy, a love story among anarchists, and a lot of information that I never knew. Johnson covers the rise of the anarchist movement, the history of dynamite, labor relations, even the discovery of fingerprinting along with a different look at J. Edgar Hoover, as nerdy librarian. The book never drags, has many cliffhanger moments, and though there are a lot of characters never gets lost or bogged down. I can't imagine the amount of research Johnson had to do, but it was worth it for such an excellent and interesting book.
Recommended for fans of history, police history, New York history. There is a lot in this book to like. If one likes to learn new things while reading, or just have fun reading, this is without a doubt the perfect read. I can't wait to share this with people.
May 31, 2024
I really enjoyed The Ghost Map, so I was excited to see that Johnson had another book coming out. The description sounded exciting, and catered to my mutual interests in history and true crime.
But ultimately I think the author bit off more than he could comfortably digest within the scope of one book. It felt very scattershot, with some topics mentioned only very briefly and tangentially, many characters coming and going, and a through-line that felt too weak to hold it all together.
At it's core it is essentially the story of the American anarchist movement, focused around Emma Goldman and her associates. But under that umbrella we also get (to name just a few threads):
-A history of Russian anarchism
-The development of dynamite by Alfred Nobel
-The American labor movement and union busting
-The New York Italian mob
-The structure of the NYPD and its special divisions
-The emergence of the bomb squad
-The history of fingerprint science and its adoption in America
-J. Edgar Hoover's information filing system
And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. Some of these were really interesting in their own right, but all together it's just too much to try and force into one cohesive narrative. Instead it feels like a jumbled hodgepodge with some interesting anecdotes but an ultimately confusing thesis.
Overall it was still an enjoyable listen though and I did learn quite a few things (I can't believe that so many American terrorist attacks seem to have been largely forgotten in the public consciousness, in an age where we're so hyper focused on terrorism). The author narrates the audiobook version himself and he did a great job, so I would recommend that format.
But ultimately I think the author bit off more than he could comfortably digest within the scope of one book. It felt very scattershot, with some topics mentioned only very briefly and tangentially, many characters coming and going, and a through-line that felt too weak to hold it all together.
At it's core it is essentially the story of the American anarchist movement, focused around Emma Goldman and her associates. But under that umbrella we also get (to name just a few threads):
-A history of Russian anarchism
-The development of dynamite by Alfred Nobel
-The American labor movement and union busting
-The New York Italian mob
-The structure of the NYPD and its special divisions
-The emergence of the bomb squad
-The history of fingerprint science and its adoption in America
-J. Edgar Hoover's information filing system
And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. Some of these were really interesting in their own right, but all together it's just too much to try and force into one cohesive narrative. Instead it feels like a jumbled hodgepodge with some interesting anecdotes but an ultimately confusing thesis.
Overall it was still an enjoyable listen though and I did learn quite a few things (I can't believe that so many American terrorist attacks seem to have been largely forgotten in the public consciousness, in an age where we're so hyper focused on terrorism). The author narrates the audiobook version himself and he did a great job, so I would recommend that format.
July 9, 2024
Taking it’s title from the invention of dynamite, The Infernal Machine focuses on that technology, the political violence it made possible and those who sought to prevent or capture the bombers. It is both a history of technologies, as Johnson also discusses the systemization of police records and methods as well as a biography covering the lives of the radical Emma Goldman and her associates and detective Joseph Fausto and reformer and police commissioner Arthur Woods.
Johnson details the key events of the time globally, especially the successful assisnation of the Czar, and when discussing the industrialization delineates who benefitted most. It is a story of the late eighteenth century and early twentieth century anarchist movements exploring their motivations, major incidents such as the Haymarket Affair, Homestead Strike and the efforts to enact an 8 hour working day.
On the police side, Johnson details the police transitioning from corrupt neighborhood toughs to an agency capable of solving crimes through the gathering and presenting of evidence. Focusing specifically on New York Johnson presents the development of detection standards, undercover investigations and the surprising importance of library work in J. Edgar Hoover’s success with the FBI.
Recommended to readers who like multi genre works that could embrace romance, true crime, history and politics.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Johnson details the key events of the time globally, especially the successful assisnation of the Czar, and when discussing the industrialization delineates who benefitted most. It is a story of the late eighteenth century and early twentieth century anarchist movements exploring their motivations, major incidents such as the Haymarket Affair, Homestead Strike and the efforts to enact an 8 hour working day.
On the police side, Johnson details the police transitioning from corrupt neighborhood toughs to an agency capable of solving crimes through the gathering and presenting of evidence. Focusing specifically on New York Johnson presents the development of detection standards, undercover investigations and the surprising importance of library work in J. Edgar Hoover’s success with the FBI.
Recommended to readers who like multi genre works that could embrace romance, true crime, history and politics.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
May 4, 2024
A fascinating book that really does tell the story of the birth of dynamite, terrorism, and how science came to be part of solving crimes. It covers Alfred Nobel's discovery of dynamite, how he was determined to make an explosive chemical more stable, even after his experiments killed his brother. It tells of how his devastation that his invention was being used to kill innocent people led to him creating the Nobel prizes, the most important to him being the Nobel prize for peace.
The book tells the story of how anarchists first used dynamite to further their cause, causing terror to cities and people, eventually being called terrorism. How these bombings led to ways of identifying criminals, crudely at first, then using fingerprints. How the classification of all this information actually led to the first manual relational databases.
All this is told mainly through the story of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, two Russian born anarchists who came to New York in their late teens and were leaders of the anarchy movement for many years. The book is an excellent history packed full of interesting events at an interesting time. The epilogue will really make you wonder with "what ifs" and the story will stay with you for a long time. #GoodreadsGiveaways
The book tells the story of how anarchists first used dynamite to further their cause, causing terror to cities and people, eventually being called terrorism. How these bombings led to ways of identifying criminals, crudely at first, then using fingerprints. How the classification of all this information actually led to the first manual relational databases.
All this is told mainly through the story of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, two Russian born anarchists who came to New York in their late teens and were leaders of the anarchy movement for many years. The book is an excellent history packed full of interesting events at an interesting time. The epilogue will really make you wonder with "what ifs" and the story will stay with you for a long time. #GoodreadsGiveaways
May 9, 2024
You could summarize The Infernal Machine in just a few words - "Librarians defeat terrorists" - but its scope is vast: the invention of dynamite, the origins of Anarchism and its American manifestation, the modernization of policing, and the creation of the FBI and the surveillance state. Through selection of interesting episodes involving colorful characters (e.g. Emma Goldman, NYPD reformers), Steven Johnson demonstrates that he is in the ranks of historical storytellers such as Erik Larson and Candice Millard who entertain while presenting lesser-know histories to general readers.
I know that I ate this book up, but I'm hoping that the major book reviews will assign this title to historians for review; I suspect some may have major disagreements (I'm not knowledgeable enough to have them) regarding facts and/or emphasis. Because the story is vast, but its length is moderate, the author has inevitably left much out leaving me with many questions. But to its credit this title has certainly whetted my appetite to read more on this subject, including American Anarchy by Michael Willrich and American Midnight by Adam Hochschild.
I know that I ate this book up, but I'm hoping that the major book reviews will assign this title to historians for review; I suspect some may have major disagreements (I'm not knowledgeable enough to have them) regarding facts and/or emphasis. Because the story is vast, but its length is moderate, the author has inevitably left much out leaving me with many questions. But to its credit this title has certainly whetted my appetite to read more on this subject, including American Anarchy by Michael Willrich and American Midnight by Adam Hochschild.
May 22, 2024
The Infernal Machine is a thrilling, minecart ride journey of dynamite and its effects from the mid 1800s through the early 1900s. I was reminded of some of the best historical video essays that I've watched in the past and, naturally, of the more recent Oppenheimer movie. The story opens with a guided cast of characters and each chapter is a fairly contained story, though several of the characters and their influences reappear throughout the book. It's incredibly easy to grow attached to many of the young revolutionaries and their radical hope, however misguided it often becomes. There is also a brief pitstop into the life of a serial killer and the detective who captures him, and dynamite plays a part even in this grotesque little detour. I'd enthusiastically recommend this to anyone who is a fan of historical non-fiction, video essay scripts, true crime, and international history.
I received an ARC of this book and my opinions are my own.
I received an ARC of this book and my opinions are my own.
May 23, 2024
The Infernal Machine by Steven Johnson covered a gap in my knowledge of U.S. History that I’d sensed for a while—the period between the Civil War and World War I. The fulcrum of Johnson’s account is the curious flourishing of a radical and violent movement against all government that took the moniker of “Anarchism”, and Johnson immediately links this movement to the novel terrorist tactic of bombings made possible by Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite. The book pursues further topics related to its origin with more or less plausibility. For example, the development of fingerprinting and forensic psychology in modern policing is certainly germane but probably had other major motivations, while it is more plausible that the emergence of centralized national policing by the FBI was mainly energized by the Anarchist threat. At the same time, the details covered by this very well-written book are fascinating and I finished it with just what I had hoped to learn more about.
July 3, 2024
The full title of this book obscures and actually misdirects what is it's core subject: anarchism. Primarily, this book is a love letter to anarchism, to the insights of Kropotkin and the spirited advocacy of Emma Goldman.
Secondarily, it's a history of the use of dynamite as a tool of terror and social change.
And only lastly, a disquisition on the development of the modern detective. Not that it's not there—Johnson shows how Bertillion inspired Faurot and Woods, who in turn made way for J. Edgar Hoover. But you can tell his writer's heart isn't as caught up in that story as it is in the romantic (sometimes literal, some times figurative) stories of the anarchists, mostly Emma Goldman, but also Alexander Berkman.
As a thing to read, this book excels: it qualifies as a page-turner (I nearly finished it over a weekend), rarely letting up as the various 'plot' threads unfold and interweave.
Secondarily, it's a history of the use of dynamite as a tool of terror and social change.
And only lastly, a disquisition on the development of the modern detective. Not that it's not there—Johnson shows how Bertillion inspired Faurot and Woods, who in turn made way for J. Edgar Hoover. But you can tell his writer's heart isn't as caught up in that story as it is in the romantic (sometimes literal, some times figurative) stories of the anarchists, mostly Emma Goldman, but also Alexander Berkman.
As a thing to read, this book excels: it qualifies as a page-turner (I nearly finished it over a weekend), rarely letting up as the various 'plot' threads unfold and interweave.
May 19, 2024
Like great fiction, great nonfiction tells a story. And Steven Johnson masterfully tells this story. The book had me enthralled from the first page through to the last. The writing is fluid and carried me along. Character development and the biographies were excellent as was the pacing. I also liked the suspense that Johnson created which made the book impossible to put down. The appropriate use of quotes and the great photos added to the quality of the book. This is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in history or politics. Thank you to Netgalley and Crown for the advance reader copy.
June 5, 2024
Account of the struggle between the anarchist movement and law enforcement that stretches around the world, from Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite, to the assassination of Czar Alexander II to the growing melting pot of New York in the years before WWI. Large amount of time is spent with two radicals named Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman as well as New York police commissioner Arthur Woods.
Riveting account of a volatile time period. The author takes the narrative in multiple directions and the overall story is well served by it. Fascinating to read of Nobel's creation and its unintended uses as well as law enforcement's efforts to forge a leg up on the anarchists.
Riveting account of a volatile time period. The author takes the narrative in multiple directions and the overall story is well served by it. Fascinating to read of Nobel's creation and its unintended uses as well as law enforcement's efforts to forge a leg up on the anarchists.
June 9, 2024
This is a well-written fascinating story about the creation of dynamite by Alfred Nobel, the rise and history of the Anarchist movement in Europe and subsequent shift to the U.S., the development of fingerprinting and an identification registry and a shift in policing from brute force prevention of immediate crimes to the concept of investigation. Johnson’s work is a delicate unfolding and the most gripping narrative of injustice and revolution in a little thought of chapter in American History.
June 27, 2024
A fast-paced history of the anarchist movement in the US and the forensic techniques that developed as a result. I have always longed to read about Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman but most of the books about them are academic tomes. This was a great introduction into their lives and a good jumping-off point for more in depth works.
As a bonus, the author did an amazing job narrating this title. That is rarely the case in my opinion. I will definitely check to see if Johnson has narrated his other works.
As a bonus, the author did an amazing job narrating this title. That is rarely the case in my opinion. I will definitely check to see if Johnson has narrated his other works.
July 6, 2024
I am always looking for books about American history that will fill in gaps instead of retelling stories I've heard many times before. This is one of those books! I had only a vague knowledge of Emma Goldman, the Anarchists, and their bomb-loving ways. I feel that I now understand what their political agenda was and why many of them thought dynamite was the way to acheive it. Johnson links the rise of the Anarchists to the invention of dynamite as well as to the rise of modern crime-fighting. Very interesting - was well worth my time.
April 6, 2024
Very interesting book that intertwines the beginning of the US Secret service, FBI and foreign anarchists. Set in the late 1800 to early 1900s with the fight between the Robber Baron's and the average worker it shows how the invention of dynamite changed how things were negotiated. With the help of Scotland yard, NY City was the base for the beginning of what we now come to see as common detectives' activities.
May 23, 2024
This is a bit of a misleading title because it has little to do with the rise of the modern detective and reads more as a biography of Emma Goldman and an ode to anarchism as a political theory. While that is a somewhat interesting subject on its own it's not what the title would have you believe it is. Also, far from convincing me that anarchist terrorists had any valid points it just makes me glad it died out as anything that had any popular support.
May 28, 2024
Fascinating examination of several “inventions” of the 1800s that continue to impact us today. Anarchism, dynamite, police investigations and state surveillance all came together as anarchists attempted to pursue their aims and the government stepped up to stop them. Fingerprints, terrorism, Hoover’s FBI all see their roots here. And to think Hoover began his career working for Library of Congress, indexing and filing information. Short leap to indexing and filing information about people.
July 6, 2024
I love listening to books now a days. I can read so many because I can be listening doing almost anything. I was completely ignorant about Nobel. After realizing what his bringing dynamite to the fore has created he decides to establish the Peace Prize, etc. to reclaim some good feelings from the people. Great to learn about finger printing beginings, Hoover's filing system and anarchists in general.
June 9, 2024
Before I read this well-written book, I didn't know the anarchist movement of the early 1900s was such a high-profile phenomenon. While sharing the extreme selfishness of most political-extremist movements, the anarchists were a different flavor of nutty, using Nobel's powerful invention, dynamite, to kill and destroy. Highly recommended.
May 19, 2024
Thank you to Goodreads giveaway and Crown for a copy of the ARC!
I read Ghost Ship a few years ago and thought it was great. This book is just as well researched and the story flows so well. I read this in two days, really couldn’t put it down.
I read Ghost Ship a few years ago and thought it was great. This book is just as well researched and the story flows so well. I read this in two days, really couldn’t put it down.
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