[A] biography of almost unqualified excellence.

The best-life of this ill-starred politician that we are likely to get...the skilful way he has paced his narrative...vivid...some of the disclosures are pure, unalloyed joy...Thorpe has painted a sympathetic enough portrait but he has not tried to blot out all the warts...excellent.

Sympathetic and authoraitative...This biography, while solidly based on a myriad primary sources and a comprehensive range of secondary ones, flows easily with many nice touches...easily the best friendly account.

A biography of almost unqualified excellence...comprehensive, authoritative, balanced and invariably (throughout more than 600 pages) readable...In a year or more of notable biographies, there has been nothing to touch it...as told by D.R. Thorpe it is a history of exceptionally high quality.

One of the most absorbing depictions of the dark underside of radical politics in many years...a riveting account, teeming with intrigue and adventure and packed with the most astonishing characters

This is an amazing book full of incredible people all of whom turn out to be real and unbelievable stories, all of which turn out be true... A genuine tour de force

Intriguing, provocative and written with a novelist's eye for detail, this book is an engrossing journey into a murky, subterranean world

One of the most absorbing depictions of the dark underside of radical politics in many years... Butterworth has opted to present the anarchists in a mode that emphasises narrative over analysis. The result is a riveting account, teeming with intrigue and adventure and packed with the most astonishing characters. One cannot help wishing there were more extended analysis, however, for when Butterworth does offer broader observations, they are exceptionally astute.

Alex Butterworth, in this wide-ranging account of 19th-century anarchist activity, does justice to both sides of the picture - the glowing ideal, its shady enactment

Sweeping, extensively researched

Butterworth writes lucidly, in fine detail

This is an exhilarating gallop through the history of anarchism

Historian Butterworth makes a first-rate addition to the growing list of books dealing with terrorism's origins and history... Delivering a virtuoso performance, Butterworth adds the hope that history will not repeat itself and that a successful new bloody ideology will not create the next scourge

This is entertaining stuff

Butterworth's fascination with his subject drips from the page...this is entertaining stuff

An astounding story of bitter civil warfare that raged across many countries for decades. Butterworth's passionate account of the anarchist movements born in the late 19th century describes a conflict that spawned its own "war on terror"