{"id":3523,"date":"2015-11-18T13:20:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T18:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2015-11-18T13:20:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T18:20:25","slug":"hartmann-the-anarchist-terrorism-in-a-late-19th-century-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2015\/11\/18\/hartmann-the-anarchist-terrorism-in-a-late-19th-century-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hartmann the Anarchist: terrorism in a late 19th century novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first and second bombs fell on the Tower, reducing <\/em>
\nit half to ruins ; they were of the largest kind, <\/em>
\nand terribly effective instruments. Meanwhile the <\/em>
\nquick-firing guns played havoc at all points of the <\/em>
\ncompass. But the worst was to come. As we rode <\/em>
\nover the heart of the City\u2014that sanctum of capital, <\/em>
\nwhere the Bank of England, many other banks of <\/em>
\nscarcely less brilliant fame, the Royal Exchange, <\/em>
\nStock Exchange, with credit companies, insurance <\/em>
\noffices, and discount houses innumerable lie herded <\/em>
\n\u2014the bombs fell in a tempest, shattering fabric after <\/em>
\nfabric, and uprooting their very foundations. There <\/em>
\nwas a constant roar of explosions, and the loss of life <\/em>
\nmust have been something terrible.<\/em><\/p>\n

Acts of terrorism in the modern age can be historically traced back to the anarchists of\u00a0the late 19th century. The anarchist movement\u00a0developed and carried out\u00a0a number of acts of violence, from random bombings to targeted assassinations. The world’s\u00a0newspapers would record these events, but sometimes in a banal fashion with\u00a0minimal elaboration, as if it were unexceptional.<\/p>\n

A foreign Anarchist was blown up at Greenwich by an explosive\u00a0with which, it is supposed, he intended to wreck the Observatory; the bomb-outrage by Emile Henry at the Hotel Terminus, Paris, is <\/em>said to have been part of a vast Anarchist plot. \u00a0—New-York tribune.<\/i> (New York [N.Y.]), 16 Feb. 1894.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amidst\u00a0this wave of anarchist violence in Europe, Edward Douglas Fawcett published\u00a0his\u00a0futuristic science fiction novel, Hartmann the Anarchist.\u00a0<\/em>Edward Douglas Fawcett,\u00a0only 17 years old when he wrote this story in 1892, tells the tale\u00a0of\u00a0an anarchist revolution set in a\u00a0future European world of\u00a01920. The novel is narrated by\u00a0a socialist, named Stanley, who provides a\u00a0journalist-like\u00a0account of the exploits of Rudolph Hartmann, an anarchist presumed dead after he\u00a0botched an attack on the Westminster Bridge, resulting in the deaths of\u00a0innocent bystanders. In actuality, Hartmann survived and has now\u00a0plotted a major attack on European capitals, beginning with London. To meet his evil purpose, Hartmann developed an electrically powered flying machine, named Attila<\/em>, to drop dynamite bombs on prominent targets such as the Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral.<\/p>\n

During the violent engagement, Stanley described the chaos.<\/p>\n

The wretched victims were fighting\u00a0for the\u00a0<\/em>
\nblocked gates and outlets like creatures possessed, <\/em>
\nbloody gaps opened and shut in their midst, and <\/em>
\nheaps of butchered and trampled bodies tripped up <\/em>
\nthe frantic survivors in batches as they ran. The din <\/em>
\nwas simply unearthly ; the picture as a whole\u00a0<\/em>
\n indescribable,\u00a0not being set off by two or three easily <\/em>
\n detachable features, but so compositely appalling in <\/em>
\n its details as to baffle the deftest pen. It lingers still <\/em>
\n vividly in my memory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eventually, Hartmann fails:<\/p>\n

Despite the devastation he had caused, Hartmann<\/em>
\n was very dissatisfied with the result. His vast outlay<\/em>
\n of material had not effected the ruin of one-fifth part<\/em>
\n of the great city, while in all probability the resources<\/em>
\n of the Attila were becoming somewhat strained…<\/em>
\n A flash that beggared the levin bolt, a crash<\/em>
\n shattering the window-panes and deadening the car,<\/em>
\n a shock hurling us both on our backs, broke the<\/em>
\n utterance. Then thundered down a shower of massive<\/em>
\n fragments, fragments of the vast ship whose decks I<\/em>
\n had once trodden. Hartmann, dismayed with the<\/em>
\n failure of his plans and rendered desperate by the<\/em>
\n letter, had blown up the Attila.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fawcett’s novel was not a major work and its influence was modest, especially in comparison to the contemporary works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Fawcett lived a very full and active life, continuing\u00a0to write a few more sci-fi novels before turning\u00a0his attention toward\u00a0philosophical ideas, mountaineering,\u00a0flying, and chess competitions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hartmann in his flying machine attacks London<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The narrator escapes the Attila<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hartmann destroys his mighty Attila<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
Description:<\/dt>\n
Fawcett, E. Douglas. Hartmann the anarchist, or, The doom of the great city. London : Edward Arnold, 1893.<\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:10875981<\/a><\/dd>\n
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Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first and second bombs fell on the Tower, reducing it half to ruins ; they were of the largest kind, and terribly effective instruments. Meanwhile the quick-firing guns played havoc at all points of the compass. But the worst was to come. As we rode over the heart of the City\u2014that sanctum of capital, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3523"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3679,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3523\/revisions\/3679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}