Paul Avrich's books are essential. Not only was he a competent historian, but he knew many of those involved in earlier events, so drew from personal interviews to flesh out the story. It also doesn't hurt that he's a great writer who gives appropriate life to the stories he tells. I recommend The Haymarket Tragedy and Sacco & Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background as the definitive texts on those subjects. He's got books on Russian anarchism, Voltairine de Cleyre, Kronstadt, The Modern School Movement. And Anarchist Voices, if you want to just read the interviews he did with anarchists (and those around them).
Other suggestions: Granny Made Me an Anarchist (Christie), Anarchism & Violence / The Anarchist Expropriators (Bayer), Sabate (Tellez), Living My Life (Goldman), Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (Berkman), The Bonnot Gang (Parry), Direct Action (Hansen)
Paul Avrich's books are essential. Not only was he a competent historian, but he knew many of those involved in earlier events, so drew from personal interviews to flesh out the story. It also doesn't hurt that he's a great writer who gives appropriate life to the stories he tells. I recommend The Haymarket Tragedy and Sacco & Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background as the definitive texts on those subjects. He's got books on Russian anarchism, Voltairine de Cleyre, Kronstadt, The Modern School Movement. And Anarchist Voices, if you want to just read the interviews he did with anarchists (and those around them).
Other suggestions: Granny Made Me an Anarchist (Christie), Anarchism & Violence / The Anarchist Expropriators (Bayer), Sabate (Tellez), Living My Life (Goldman), Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (Berkman), The Bonnot Gang (Parry), Direct Action (Hansen)