ABFFE Book Review: The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair
 by Moshik Temkin

Book Review by Audrey Eisman
To read books reviews by Audrey Eisman click here.

Temkin, Moshik. The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 978-0300124842.

In 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for the robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and security guard in South Braintree, an industrial suburb of Boston. The two young Italian immigrants were revolutionary anarchists, and their conviction in 1921 was denounced as politically motivated. By the time they were executed in 1927, their case had become a cause célèbre around the world.

In his introduction, author Moshik Temkin, a history professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, explains that he is seeking not only to detail the story of Sacco and Vanzetti’s ordeal but also to use the case as a prism to throw light on wider issues in American and international history. He sees many parallels to our politics today.
 
The case came to trial at a time when there was widespread fear of violent foreign radicals. FBI Director William J. Burns ordered his agents to report any suspicious activity on Sacco and Vanzetti’s behalf. The press praised the trial and death sentences. The New York Times warned against ‘Reds’ plotting a violent revenge after the pair was executed. However, a few years later, sentiment began to change and new questions were raised about ‘the Sacco-Vanzetti affair.’ Attorneys, including Clarence Darrow and Felix Frankfurter became supporters and published an article in 1927 in the conservative Atlantic Monthly that was expanded into a book, The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti. They argued that the judge, Webster Thayer, was biased and that the trial had been deeply flawed and unfair. Their intervention inspired a hesitant media to pay more attention. The New York Times published a hard-hitting article by H.G. Wells. And, in 1927, many leading world figures, including Albert Einstein, Fritz Kreisler and Thomas Mann, signed a petition urging President Calvin Coolidge and Massachusetts Governor Alvan Fuller to pardon Sacco and Vanzetti.

The last days of the two Italian Americans were fraught with tension. The governor received many clemency petitions, including one from the Federal Council of Churches. Workers staged strikes and rallies in support of the men, and the police arrested several protesters including John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
 
But the only people who could save Sacco and Vanzetti were otherwise occupied. President Calvin Coolidge was on vacation in the Dakotas, riding around in a cowboy suit, being made an honorary member of the Sioux tribe and inaugurating the first carvings at Mount Rushmore. William Taft, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was vacationing in Canada, and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who was Frankfurter’s mentor at Harvard, recused himself because his wife had temporarily taken Sacco’s wife and children into their home.

Finally, just after midnight on August 23, 1927, the two men were electrocuted.

In 1958, the first significant attempt was made by Massachusetts politicians to persuade the governor to pardon the men. Also in 1958, CBS TV presented a sympathetic portrayal of Sacco and Vanzetti on their program, Camera Three. In June 1960, NBC aired a two-part special program, The Sacco-Vanzetti Story, written by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet.

Additional television shows, theatrical performances and songs including ones by Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie continued the saga of Sacco and Vanzetti. Conservatives like Westbrook Pegler and William F. Buckley decried the attempt to rehabilitate men they considered killers.

Finally, in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis granted the two anarchists what amounted to a posthumous pardon, officially stating that their trial had been unfair.
 
The political battle over Sacco and Vanzetti has obscured the historical significance of the case, Temkin concludes “Only when it receives the attention due to it from scholars – not trying yet again to prove guilt or innocence but exploring its meaning – can justice be done, if not to Sacco and Vanzetti, then at least to their place in history.”

Audrey Eisman spent several years working for ABFFE and the American Booksellers Association.  During that time, she helped to organize Banned Books Week, the ABFFE silent auctions, and other ABFFE events.  She also wrote book reviews for ABFFE.  Since then, she has been a fundraiser for various non-profit organizations, is working on a book of her own, and serves as our free-lance book reviewer.

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