The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siecle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), by John Merriman

Violence is a dangerous path for terrorists to follow. It can both publicize their cause and turn the public against them. When a disgruntled middle-class intellectual called Emile Henry blew up a busy Paris restaurant in 1894, his trial and execution for murder triggered a mixed response. Yale history professor John Merriman investigates this once-celebrated incident, including the terrible working-class poverty Henry claimed to speak for when he struck out against citizens with no direct ties to the problems he protested. Written with elegant brevity, The Dynamite Club is a reminder of an era when violent anarchists acted out their hatred against a repressive civilization. Their movement was doomed, but the issues they protested remain with us today in many parts of the world. (David Luhrssen)