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Terror Through Time

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Factual: History

Fergal Keane uncovers the roots of modern terrorism

Terror Through Time: No Future: The Great Anarchist Scare

No Future: The Great Anarchist Scare

09/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Terror Through Time, No Future: The Great Anarchist Scare

Fergal Keane meets the anarchists who petrified the genteel society of the 1890s.

Fergal Keane meets the anarchists and nihilists who planned to bomb their way to Utopia as the 19th century came to a violent end.

February 1894, Greenwich Park, London. A young Frenchman, Martial Bourdin is killed by a bomb he's carrying toward the Royal Observatory. The contents of his pockets reveal his connection to the international anarchists who fled the continent for the safe haven of London. Was Britain about to endure a wave of anarchist attacks?

In the third part of a new series on the roots of modern terrorism, Fergal Keane plunges into the Soho underworld of Russian nihilists, German socialists and French anarchists. Most were content to enjoy the security of their temporary British home but to the police they were a potentially dangerous menace, plotting revolution and promoting agitation. Were there lone wolves amongst them willing to kill whilst others talked?

Historians Orlando Figes, Constance Bantman and Robert Hampson and conceptual artist Rod Dickinson help Fergal piece together the story of the men and women who wanted to remake society, whatever the cost.

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