Mezzo secolo di anarchia (1898-1945) [A Half Century of Anarchy (1898-1945)]. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1954.
Title
Mezzo secolo di anarchia (1898-1945) [A Half Century of Anarchy (1898-1945)]. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1954.
Description
This memoir describes Borghi's arrival in the world of anarchism, so new to him, in very dramatic terms. He was amazed by America: "For a long time, I did not understand it. I was attracted by it and at the same time repelled by it."
The preface is by Gaetano Salvemini, the distinguished Italian historian and anti-fascist who taught, in exile, at Harvard.
This work was published in Italy about a year after Borghi finally repatriated to Italy. He had returned to Italy at the end of the war, in 1945, but returned to the U.S. in 1948 for about five years. In his final period in Italy, the Federazione Anarchica made him editor of Umanità Nova.
This copy's owner was Hugo Rolland (a friend of Onorio Ruotolo, see our copy of Il mio primo maestro) as indicated by the owner stamp on the half title (with an address in Firenze) and a long handwritten description of how he received his copy from his "dearest friend" in Italy, Ernesto Borro.
Of Rolland, we know from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, where his papers are, that his real name was Erasmo Abate (b. Formia 1895 - d. Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1977). He emigrated to the U.S. in 1912; was active in the anarchist movement in Philadelphia as well as in the trade union, Unione dei Lavoratori Italiani. He was close to Aldino Felicani and Carlo Tresca, and involved in the campaign in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1921.
He was deported to Italy in 1922, he says in his interviews with historian Paul Avrich (Anarchist Voices) in Elmhurst, Queens, in 1971 and 1973. He claims to have been involved in a failed plot to assassinate Mussolini in 1924, after Matteotti's murder by fascists.
Rolland was accused of antinational activities and "criminal syndicalism" and forced to return to Italy in 1922. He fought against the fascists in Ancona, was arrested and had to leave Italy. He lived in Paris 1923-1925, where together with Alberto Meschi and others was involved in the Unione Garibaldina; harassed by the police; he returned to the U.S. through Canada, under the name "Carlo Bruni." He worked as a decorator and farmer; contributed to the founding of the anarchist paper Germinal in New Jersey and to the activity of the Comitato Pro Vittime Politiche in Philadelphia, known as "Siegfried" or "Siegfried Marr."
Rolland returned to Italy in 1960 but kept writing for U.S. publications, including Aldino Felicani's Controcorrente and Egidio Clemente's La Parola del Popolo.
The preface is by Gaetano Salvemini, the distinguished Italian historian and anti-fascist who taught, in exile, at Harvard.
This work was published in Italy about a year after Borghi finally repatriated to Italy. He had returned to Italy at the end of the war, in 1945, but returned to the U.S. in 1948 for about five years. In his final period in Italy, the Federazione Anarchica made him editor of Umanità Nova.
This copy's owner was Hugo Rolland (a friend of Onorio Ruotolo, see our copy of Il mio primo maestro) as indicated by the owner stamp on the half title (with an address in Firenze) and a long handwritten description of how he received his copy from his "dearest friend" in Italy, Ernesto Borro.
Of Rolland, we know from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, where his papers are, that his real name was Erasmo Abate (b. Formia 1895 - d. Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1977). He emigrated to the U.S. in 1912; was active in the anarchist movement in Philadelphia as well as in the trade union, Unione dei Lavoratori Italiani. He was close to Aldino Felicani and Carlo Tresca, and involved in the campaign in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1921.
He was deported to Italy in 1922, he says in his interviews with historian Paul Avrich (Anarchist Voices) in Elmhurst, Queens, in 1971 and 1973. He claims to have been involved in a failed plot to assassinate Mussolini in 1924, after Matteotti's murder by fascists.
Rolland was accused of antinational activities and "criminal syndicalism" and forced to return to Italy in 1922. He fought against the fascists in Ancona, was arrested and had to leave Italy. He lived in Paris 1923-1925, where together with Alberto Meschi and others was involved in the Unione Garibaldina; harassed by the police; he returned to the U.S. through Canada, under the name "Carlo Bruni." He worked as a decorator and farmer; contributed to the founding of the anarchist paper Germinal in New Jersey and to the activity of the Comitato Pro Vittime Politiche in Philadelphia, known as "Siegfried" or "Siegfried Marr."
Rolland returned to Italy in 1960 but kept writing for U.S. publications, including Aldino Felicani's Controcorrente and Egidio Clemente's La Parola del Popolo.
Creator
Armando Borghi
Publisher
Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane
Date
1954
Format
23 x 17cm; 371 p.
Language
Italian
Citation
Armando Borghi, “Mezzo secolo di anarchia (1898-1945) [A Half Century of Anarchy (1898-1945)]. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1954.,” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed April 24, 2024, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/12.
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