LITCHFIELD, Conn. -
Aug. 7, 2018 -
PRLog -- A fast-paced and gripping historical account, Ballad of the Anarchist Bandits is a true tale of idealists and lost causes -- and a vivid evocation of Paris in the dizzying years before the horrors of World War I were unleashed.
For six terrifying months in 1911-1912, the citizens of Paris were gripped by a violent crime streak. A group of anarchists, motivated by the rampant inequality and poverty in Paris, went on a rampage throughout the city and its suburbs, robbing banks and wealthy Parisians, killing anyone who got in their way, and always managing to stay one step ahead of the police.
John Merriman tells this story through the eyes of two young, idealistic lovers: Victor Kibaltchiche (later the famed Russian revolutionary and writer Victor Serge) and Rirette Maîtrejean, who chronicled the Bonnot crime spree in the radical newspaper L'Anarchie. Victor and Rirette rejected the violence of Bonnot and his cronies, but to the police it made no difference.
John Merriman received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He teaches French and Modern European history at Yale University. In 2018, Merriman received the American Historical Association award for career "Distinguished Scholarship."
He has authored and edited numerous books including The Agony of the Republic: The Repression of the Left in Revolutionary France, 1848-1851 and Dynamite Club: How a Café Bombing Ignited the Age of Modern Terror.
