In my last semester of college, I was required to take a history course to finish my International Relations major. I chose HIS 332: Immigration in America for several reasons: I was tired of learning only about wars in history, I had learned a lot about the economic impacts of migration in my Labor Economics course the previous semester, and it worked well with my class schedule. Despite these obvious reasons why HIS 332 was a great choice for rounding out my undergraduate degree, I was still hesitant. In IR, we almost exclusively focus on events that happen after World War II, and I wasn’t sure how I would take to a history class that began in 1790. Despite these reservations, I ultimately found myself enjoying the opportunity to learn something “new” and create a final project that allowed me to explore a topic I had dabbled in but not fully examined—transnational anarchist organizing during the Red Scares.
Over the course of the semester, I used primary sources (definitely a first for this IR major) to trace the efforts of anarchists around the world to evade state persecution. I narrowed my focus to the early 1900s for the sake of my final product, but gained a better understanding of labor organizing and radical politics in the U.S. and beyond today. Analyzing political cartoons, books, wanted posters, and zines, I identified 13 turning points in transnational anarchist community building and organizing. Though this list is certainly not exhaustive, it combines my personal interests, like the life of Eve Adams, and more conventionally studied historical moments, like the Haymarket Massacre or Emma Goldman’s deportation. By the end of the semester, I compiled these sources and their stories into a StoryMap, powered by Northwestern University’s Knight Lab.
This project expanded my research and analytical skills. I had to use historical databases for the first time, and I’d never relied on primary sources to make an argument before taking this class. While working on my first essay, I was frustrated with my unfamiliarity with the needed skills that seemed to come naturally to my peers in the course who were history majors. However, I started to get the hang of it by the second written assignment and began imagining the possibilities of a StoryMap about political organizing that was rooted in primary sources. Through this final project, I learned a lot about how state mechanisms to regulate migration result in stifling political expression. By putting laws and arrest records in conversation with popular publications and disseminated meeting bulletins, I gained an understanding of how radicals were organizing in response to the state over 100 years ago. Building this StoryMap has sparked my interest in uncovering radical political thought throughout history, an outlet I hope to pursue more this summer with some leisure reading.
My StoryMap, titled “Anarchist Migration and Transnational Organizing,” is embedded below, but can also be viewed on the Knight Lab Website.
