Anarchism: Revolutionaries in Suspenders

The beginning could hardly have been more appropriate. There were the firemen searching the decrepit Teatro degli Animosi (Theater of the Courageous) in the Italian town of Carrara for bombs. Only after they had given the all clear did the Third International Congress of Anarchist Federations call itself to order—of a sort. As it turned out, there was more than enough verbal bombast to compensate for the lack of real bombs.

The anarchists, representing the dissatisfied, the disgruntled and the dyspeptic of 37 nations, had convened for their third postwar conference. On their agenda were such burning issues as "Anarchism...