The World That Never Was : A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents

The last years of the nineteenth century saw the birth of a new phenomenon: international terrorism.

Bombings and assassinations shook the great cities of Europe and America, threatening social order.

Fiendish networks of anarchist conspiritors were blamed and the public whipped into a frenzy of anxiety.

The reality was rather different. These dramatic events were only the most visible part of a longer, clandestine struggle waged between the forces of revolution and reaction, in which little was as it seemed.

Alex Butterworth interweaves group biography, cultural history and meticulous detective work to create a revelatory account of the age.

Both intimate and panoramic, it is a story with uncanny resonances for today.