by Beverly Gage
First published 2010
September 16, 1920. Workers stream onto Wall Street for lunch when a horse-drawn wagon detonates in a blast of dynamite and shrapnel. The explosion kills thirty-nine people and wounds hundreds more at the heart of America's financial district. Beverly Gage reconstructs this forgotten catastrophe that marked the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history to that point. She examines how the bombing transformed a busy corner into a scene of devastation and explores the political aftermath that gripped the nation. The book reveals how Americans responded to terror in an earlier age, when anarchists and communists dominated public fears. Gage draws on political cartoons and contemporary sources to show how the attack reflected the anxieties of a country grappling with radical violence and social upheaval. The Day Wall Street Exploded recovers a pivotal moment when America first confronted mass terrorism on its own soil.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-drama
Setting: Wall Street, United States
Period: 1920s
416 pages · Paperback · Oxford University Press
Content warnings: violence