ANDREW WHITEHEAD

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A Devilish Kind of Courage: Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney Street
=Andrew Whitehead=

published by Reaktion Books
On 3 January 1911, in the heart of London’s mainly Jewish East End, police discovered Latvian revolutionaries wanted for the murder of three officers. A six-hour gunfight ensued, with a fire consuming the besieged building. Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, arrived at the scene and ordered the blaze not to be extinguished. Afterwards two charred bodies were found; the elusive Peter the Painter, believed to have been the ringleader, remained at large. This gripping episode, known as the ‘Siege of Sidney Street’, was a nationwide sensation and ignited fierce debates on immigration to Britain, political extremism and law enforcement. This book unravels the full story of the siege, the Latvian émigrés and their ties to the vibrant anarchist movement in London’s East End.

'The Tottenham Outrage, the Houndsditch Murders and the Siege of Sidney Street rank among the most extraordinary events in modern London history. In this new and wonderfully readable account, Andrew Whitehead combines unrivalled knowledge with meticulous scholarship to reveal for the first time the full story behind these spectacular but mysterious crimes.' - Jerry White

'A Devilish Kind of Courage is a compelling history of the Siege of Sidney Street that deftly examines the event’s international dimensions and vividly brings to life the underground communities it outlawed. Andrew Whitehead’s argument that liberalism ultimately prevailed over media-fuelled public anxiety is a judicious and salutary reminder of the dangers of knee-jerk government legislation.'
- Professor Ruth Kinna

REVIEWS

'Through careful use of police documents, as well as reports in the contemporary Yiddish press, Whitehead renders their [Latvian anarchists'] world in vivid detail: the reader sees the cheap furniture in rented rooms lit by sputtering gas lamps, the love affairs that would sometimes blossom briefly between comrades, and the details of their shared dreams about transforming their homeland.' - TLS

'With its themes of immigration, xenophobia, antisemitism and foreign atrocities on English soil, Whitehead's book is contemporary and relevant. His meticulous research is lightly worn
in a book that propels the reader forward in lively, elegant prose.' - The Critic

'brilliantly recounts the events' - Camden New Journal

'[This] well-researched and detailed book looks like being the definitive study' - Socialist Standard

'The book has certainly renewed my interest in East End Jewish Radicals before the First World War
and brings a human side to an important period in working-class politics in East London.
I would thoroughly recommend it.' - Socialist History

'a master class in social history' - Policing and Society

Welcome!

I am a historian, lecturer and freelance journalist after 35 years with the BBC as a correspondent, presenter and Editor of BBC World Service News. I am an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham; I teach American undergraduates in London for Global Education Oregon; I'm also a visiting professor at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, south India.

My biography of Freda Bedi was published in 2019 - more here! And the latest of my titles about Curious London is out too.

This website is about my enthusiasms, interests and the issues and topics which have caught my attention. These range from contemporary Kashmir to my collections of political pamphlets and badges.

I've also posted on the site listings of my interviews with those who lived through Partition in South Asia, my recordings of British political activists, a visual record of Kashmir in the turbulent year of 1947, and the audio of some of my radio documentaries and oral history.

There's a blog too - do take a look. And I'd be keen to hear from you about the site - here's where you can contact me. Thanks for paying my website a visit - do come again.

Andrew Whitehead