The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair

America on Trial

By: Moshik Temkin

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

What began as the obscure local case of two Italian immigrant anarchists accused of robbery and murder flared into an unprecedented political and legal scandal as the perception grew that their conviction was a judicial travesty and their execution a political murder. This book is the first to reveal the full national and international scope of the Sacco-Vanzetti affair, uncovering how and why the two men became the center of a global cause célèbre that shook public opinion and transformed America’s relationship with the world.

Drawing on extensive research on two continents, and written with verve, this book connects the Sacco-Vanzetti affair to the most polarizing political and social concerns of its era. Moshik Temkin contends that the worldwide attention to the case was generated not only by the conviction that innocent men had been condemned for their radical politics and ethnic origins but also as part of a reaction to US global supremacy and isolationism after World War I. The author further argues that the international protest, which helped make Sacco and Vanzetti famous men, ultimately provoked their executions. The book concludes by investigating the affair’s enduring repercussions and what they reveal about global political action, terrorism, jingoism, xenophobia, and the politics of our own time.

The book is published by Yale University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2009 Moshik Temkin (P)2023 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Surpasses all prior analyses of this subject in terms of scope, erudition, and objectivity." (Library Journal)

"An engaging and insightful work." (Journal of International Law and Politics)

"An excellent reassessment of the historical importance of this infamous case." (Reviews in American History)