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Anarchist newspaper circulation
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on May 25, 2008 at 11:18:24 am
I have been thinking about the circulation of anarchist newspapers and magazines.I know that Mother Earth had a circulation of about 3.000 at its highest point.Liberty's highest circulation was around a thousand. Does anyone else out there have any figures??
Just reading 'Sacco and Vanzetti the anarchist background' - I think Avrich gives figures for some of the Italian-american papers. now i know you're interested i can look for numbers. john
Cronaca Sovversiva: 'never exceeded four or five thousand' - Avrich Sacco and Vanzetti p50.
L'Adunata dei refrattari: rose to 10,000 after WW2 (when copies were being shipped backto Italy) - Berman, The torch and the Axe.
According to Maximoff in The Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution: "Newspapers were published not only in the large administrative and industrial centres, like Moscow and Petrograd, which had several Anarchist newspapers (in Petrograd the circulation of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Golos Trouda and the Anarchist Burevestnik was 25,000 each; the Moscow daily Anarchia had about the same circulation), but also in provincial cities, like Kronstadt, Yaroslavl, Nizhni-Novgorod, Saratov, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Rostov on Don, Odessa and Kiev. (In 1918, Anarchist papers were coming out in Ivanovo-Vosnesensk, Chembar, Ekaterinburg, Kursk, Ekaterinoslav, Viatka.)"
Also Green Anarchy claims their current circulation is between 8000-9000. Ha! Nicole
How come I've seen the figure of 10,000 for Mother Earth's peak circulation? i.e. in the introduction to Peter Glassgold's anthology, and I'm sure in a couple of other sources. I've actaully been working on a database of US anarchist newspaper circulations (you stole my idea!); I've got about 29 figures so far (but some are estimates from authorities or historians, and this includes the 10,000 number for ME) and I'll post the results once they're in a more managable form. --Kenyon
Yes.I have seen that.The figure 10,000 comes from Rebel In Paradise and Drinnon offers no source for it.The only figure I have seen EG mention is 3,000, but I'll go and do some counting of subscribers.A couple of other newspapers.According to Marcelino Garcia in "Anarchist Voices" .." the top circulation of Cultura Proletaria" which I edited from the 1930s till it closed in 1952, was 4,000" (p392) Meanwhile Frank Brand (Enrico Arrigoni) states that "Eresia" ( 1928-1932) had a print run of 2,000.(pp174) Database eh? Fucking students
You know I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers for GA were correct.Does anyone have any sense of circulation of other current publications?
Another general point,I guess,is the number of subscribers papers had/have.From my own experience, there was a clear relatioship between number of subscribers to the paper and how long it existed!!
This also relates to the question of subscribers vs. circulation (i.e. print run)--I think often the two are conflated. Then of course estimating readership is a whole other question. In addition, there's the fact that anarchist publications knew no borders--papers published in the US went all over the world, while anarchists in the US regularly read foreign, wrote for, and funded papers like Freedom, Der Arbeter Fraynd, Studi Sociali, etc. --Kenyon
Chicago Arbeiter-Zeitung 5000 in 1886 (EGPP Book 1). Anarchy: JODA has wide circulation but their numbers are probably extremely inflated. I wonder if they count the dozens of copies sent to us at PLP that I throw straight into the bin. Nicole
Yes.One of my reasons for thinking on this issue was just how many anarchists papers got/get out there, beyond subscriber lists.When John on donations to KSL from various people in the UK I notice there are often 10 copies of the same issue of Class War,all new and pristine.They never went anywhere.I hope that wasn't repeated too much.Anyway I am at the archive this weekend and I'll see what other figures I can find.--Barry
You know you're freaking old when you stay up to 4 in the morning on a Friday night reading through the pages of The Blast trying to figure out the paper's circulation. I scoured every page looking for some kind of clue and here is what I found. According to the 15 March 1916 it cost them $75 to produce each edition. The wholesale cost for the paper was 2.5 cents and a single copy was 5 cents. If we take these figures I would make a conservative estimate that the print run for the Blast at this time was 1500 - 3000 ($75/0.05 or $75/0.025). As to how many people actually read it, who knows. Then in the 15 July 1916 edition, during the height of the anti-preparedness movement, the editors announced that the Blast was going to double its circulation. This is confirmed in the 15 August 1916 edition when the paper states they have printed "an extra large issue this time" (p.7). This was probably necessary due to the attention the paper was receiving in the mainstream press after the bombing and arrests of Mooney, Billings, Nolan and Weinberg. The editors were using the paper to spread the word about their case. In Anarchist Voices Marion Bell remembers mailing copies of the Blast to people all over the world (including Malatesta in London) from her hometown in AZ after AB had problems mailing it from San Francisco (p. 30). So in the end, I could not find a exact number of readers. Oh well. --Nicole the insomniac
Well.I finally tracked down the 10,000 number for Mother Earth.It's the figure quoted at Berkman and Goldman's trial in 1917.It was ,I think, a special print run for the June 1917 issue.(I'll confirm that).After reading Nicole's exhaustive assessment of the print run for The Blast( come on it's healthier thasn hanging around the toilets at the Gilman!!) I am more than ever inclined to see the regular Mother Earth print run as around 3,000.I am pretty sure that Mother Earth's mailing list was passed on to The Blast.Thank you Kenyon for the other figures.Do you think that 20,000 for FAS is pushing it a bit?
Every source says the FAS circulation in by 1914 was between 20-30,000. Mina Graur further says says it had 14,000 _subscribers_ at its height (I don't recall where she got this figure, but probably from the pages of the FAS itself somewhere), which would definitely mean its total circulation would have been significantly higher than 14,000. Two things to keep in in mind are that a lot of FAS readers weren't necessisarily anarchists; under Yanovsky's editorship the FAS became an important source of both labor news in general and of Yiddish literature. Also, Yiddish-speaking Jews were a particularly radical group; the socialist Forverts (Jewish Daily Forward) was the most widely circulated Yiddish paper in the country and peaked at about 250,000 around 1920, so with the FAS we're talking about 1/10 the circulation of the most popular socialist paper, which seems like a reasonable fraction. --Kenyon
Free Society had a circulation of about 1000 is January 1898 and they were trying increase it to 5000 by encouaging people to take out larger subscriptions and then passing them around to friends/comrades etc. They aregued that if they could get 2000 paid subscriptions they could increase the total circ to 5000. -- Jessica (I've never found any circ stats for firebrand)
Allright, below is my updated list
-Kenyon
Anarchist Periodical Circulation Figures, 1880-1940
compiled by Kenyon Zimmer
Key:
e = estimate
s = self-reported
r = recollection
p = private correspondence
Title
|
Year(s)
|
Circulation
|
Subscribers
|
Source
|
Notes
|
L’Adunata dei Refrattari
|
1922-1939
|
c.5,000
|
|
Berman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Agitator
|
1910-1912
|
300+
|
300 s
|
Gorgura
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Alarm (I)
|
1884
|
2,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1885
|
3,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1886
|
3,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
L’Allarme
|
1915
|
2,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:37
|
|
|
1916
|
6,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:37
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amerikanskie Izvestiia
|
1922
|
3,000 e
|
|
Davis, 126
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Der Anarchist
|
1886
|
300
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:355; Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Anarchist Soviet Bulletin
|
1919
|
2,000 e; 650,000 s
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004; Anarchist Soviet Bulletin, April 1919
|
Second figure obviously fictitious
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Der Arme Teufel
|
1887
|
2,750
|
|
Oestreicher, 159
|
|
|
1890
|
3,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:376
|
|
|
1894
|
3,500
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1894, 1295
|
|
|
1895
|
7,000
|
|
Oestreicher, 157
|
|
|
1897
|
3,525
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1897, 1352
|
|
|
1898
|
2,700; 3,525 e
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:376; N. W. Ayer 1898, 1358
|
|
|
1900
|
3,525; 3,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:376; N. W. Ayer 1900, 1406
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
L’Avvenire
|
1912
|
4,000
|
|
Pernicone, “War,” 81
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Budoucnost
|
1884
|
360
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:241
|
|
|
1886
|
750
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Challenge
|
1938
|
5,000 p
|
|
[Bluestein] to [Steimer] & [Fléchine]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung
|
1880
|
3,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1881
|
4,500
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1882
|
4,850
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1883
|
5,200
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1884
|
5,326
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1885
|
5,110
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1886
|
5,780
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124; Hoerder, ed., 3:389
|
|
|
1888
|
5,000
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1890
|
4,600
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1892
|
5,800
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1894
|
7,145
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1895
|
15,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:389
|
|
|
1896
|
15,120
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1898
|
12,560
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1900
|
10,000; 15,000
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100; Bekken, 18
|
|
|
1910
|
15,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:389
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cronaca Sovversiva
|
1912
|
3,200
|
|
Pernicone, “War,” 81
|
|
|
c.1917
|
4,000
|
|
Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti, 50
|
|
|
1918
|
5,000
|
|
Cartosio, 425
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cultura Proletaria
|
c.1927-1939
|
4,000 r
|
|
Avrich, Anarchist Voices, 392
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dĕlnické Listy
|
1896
|
1,200
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:244
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Delo Truda
|
1939
|
200-300
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:118
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Demonstrator
|
1904
|
c.800
|
|
Veysey, 36
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Discontent
|
1900
|
1,200
|
|
Ghormley
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Domani
|
1919
|
1,500; 1,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2005; Hoerder, ed., 3:60
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
L’Emancipazione
|
1931
|
3,000
|
2,000+
|
R. De Rango, “Ai compagni,” L’Emancipazione, June 1931
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eresia
|
1928-1930
|
c.2,000 r
|
|
Avrich, Anarchist Voices, 174
|
|
|
1931-1932
|
3,000 s; 3,100 s
|
|
Eresia, January 1932, 65
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Die Fackel
|
1880
|
5,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124; Hoerder, ed., 3:407
|
|
|
1881
|
5,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1882
|
7,150
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1883
|
9,300
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1884
|
10,035
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1885
|
10,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1886
|
12,200
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1888
|
7,500
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1890
|
16,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:407; Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1892
|
20,000
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1894
|
24,160
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1895
|
25,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:407
|
|
|
1896
|
24,600
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1898
|
19,800
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1900
|
15,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:407; Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1910
|
24,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:407; Bekken, 18
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fraye Arbeter Shtime
|
1890-94
|
3-4,000
|
|
Sanders, 112; Michels, 100
|
Calculated as ½ circ. of Arbayter Tsaytung
|
|
1899
|
4,000
|
|
Gordin, 249
|
|
|
1904
|
20,000
|
|
Gordin, 294
|
|
|
1906
|
20,000
|
|
Gordin, 314
|
|
|
1910
|
15,000 s
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1910, 1160
|
|
|
1911
|
15,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1911, 1210
|
|
|
1913
|
12,500 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1913, 637 (too low)
|
|
|
1914
|
25,000-30,000 s; 12,500 e
|
15,000
|
Gordin, 314; N. W. Ayer 1914, 650; Graur, 244
|
Ayer estimate far too low
|
|
1917
|
12,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1917, 1292
|
|
|
1918
|
12,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1918, 672
|
|
|
1920
|
12,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism 2:2004; N. W. Ayer 1920, 1300
|
|
|
1923
|
7,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1923, 1376
|
|
|
1924
|
7,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1924, 1398
|
|
|
1925
|
7,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1925, 1419
|
|
|
1935
|
5,000 p
|
|
Cohn to Nettlau
|
|
|
1940
|
10,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1940, 1190
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Di Fraye Gezelshaft (I)
|
1895
|
2,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:579
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Di Fraye Gezelshaft (II)
|
1910
|
6,000-8,000 s
|
|
Di Fraye Gezelshaft, January 1910 and May 1910
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free Society (I)
|
1898
|
1,000
|
|
“New Year Suggestion,” Free Society, 2 January 1898
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free Society (II)
|
1921
|
1,000+
|
|
Busha
|
1,000 copies delivered to Philadelphia alone
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freedom (II)
|
1919
|
2,500 s; 2,000 e
|
|
Freedom, April-May 1919; Revolutionary Radicalism 2:20006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freedom (III)
|
1933
|
c.2,000 s
|
|
Freedom, 18 March 1933
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freiheit
|
1883
|
5,000
|
|
Carlson, 205
|
|
|
1884
|
5,000
|
|
Carlson, 205
|
|
|
1885
|
5,000
|
|
Carlson, 205
|
|
|
1886
|
5,000
|
|
Carlson, 205
|
|
|
1892
|
4,300
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:411
|
|
|
1894
|
4,300
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1894, 538
|
|
|
1896
|
5,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:411
|
|
|
1897
|
1897
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1897, 1353
|
|
|
1904
|
3,500
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1904, 1458
|
|
|
1905
|
3,500
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1905, 1103; Hoerder, ed., 3:411
|
|
|
1906
|
5,000
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1906, 1112
|
|
|
1907
|
5,000
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1907, 1126
|
|
|
1908
|
5,000
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1908, 1131
|
|
|
1909
|
4,500
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1909, 1140
|
|
|
1910
|
4,250
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1910, 1157; Hoerder, ed., 3:411
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Golos Truda
|
c. 1917
|
c. 2,800
|
|
“Mailing List—‘Golos Truda’—Russian Nihilist Newspaper”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Golos Truzhenika
|
1920
|
1,500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
1922
|
6,000 s, 700 e
|
|
Davis, 126
|
Probably closer to 1,500
|
|
1925
|
1,400 p; 5,000 s
|
|
Maximov to Mrachnyi; De Leon, 11
|
De Leon definitely inflated
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Jaquerie
|
1919
|
3,000
|
|
United States Congress, 536
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Khleb i Volia
|
1919
|
4,547
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 1:862
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lampcka
|
1886
|
750
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Land and Liberty
|
1914-1915
|
3,500
|
|
Sandos, 61
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Liberty
|
1890
|
1,000
|
|
Martin, 268
|
|
|
1894
|
800
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1894, 543
|
|
|
1898
|
750
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1898, 572
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lucifer
|
1884
|
900
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1884, 302
|
|
|
1885
|
850
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1885, 311
|
|
|
1886
|
850
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1886, 324
|
|
|
1888
|
850
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1888, 850
|
|
|
1889
|
1,250
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1889, 187
|
|
|
1890
|
1,676
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1890, 262
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Luokkataistelu
|
1919
|
5,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Man!
|
1934
|
|
|
Nold
|
“the…paper with the most subscribers”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Il Martello
|
1919
|
2,500
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004
|
|
|
1923
|
6,500
|
|
Pernicone, Carlo Tresca, 105
|
|
|
1924
|
10,500
|
|
Pernicone, Carlo Tresca, 105
|
|
|
1929
|
8,000
|
|
Pernicone, Carlo Tresca, 105
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Modern School
|
1920
|
500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mother Earth (I)
|
1906-1917
|
c.3,000-4,000
|
|
Pateman
|
|
|
1910
|
6,000
|
|
New York Times, 8 May 1910
|
|
|
1917
|
10,000 (special June issue)
|
|
Pateman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Den Nye Tid
|
1880
|
1,600
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1881
|
1,600
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1882
|
2,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1883
|
2,400
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1884
|
2,800
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Di Parole
|
1884-1885
|
2,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:453
|
|
|
1888
|
2,200
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:453
|
|
|
1890
|
1,600
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:453
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Plebe
|
1906-1909
|
3,000+
|
3,000
|
Caminita, 47
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Práce
|
1886-1887
|
500
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:253
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Questione Sociale (I)
|
1899
|
3,500
|
|
Panofsky, 290
|
|
|
1900
|
3,000
|
|
Carey, 291
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Il Refrattario
|
1919
|
2,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:852, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Regeneración
|
1910
|
11,000 s; 17,000 r
|
|
Mother Earth, April 1911; Freedom (London), December 1922
|
|
|
1915
|
3,986
|
|
Sandos, 59,
|
|
|
1916
|
10,500 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1916, 1286
|
Too high
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Le Rèveil des Mineurs
|
1890-1893
|
5,000
|
|
Creagh, 149
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Road to Freedom
|
1925
|
1,200 s
|
|
De Leon, 26
|
|
|
c.1926-1932
|
3,000+
|
3,000
|
Avrich, Anarchist Voices, 432
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Sferza
|
1925
|
673+
|
c. 673 subs.
|
Untitled address list given to Germinal by La Sferza, n.d. [1925], Hugo Rolland Archive, IISH, Folder 15.
|
Total circ. of 1,000-1,500?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spanish Revolution
|
1938
|
7,000 r
|
|
Dolgoff, 19
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vanguard
|
c.1936
|
c.3,000 r
|
|
Avrich, Anarchist Voices, 450
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Di Varhayt
|
1889
|
2,500
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:654
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Der Verbote
|
1880
|
5,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1881
|
6,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1882
|
6,500
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1883
|
7,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1884
|
7,115
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1885
|
8,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124; Hoerder, ed., 3:492
|
|
|
1886
|
8,000
|
|
Nelson, Beyond, 124
|
|
|
1888
|
5,000
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1890
|
3,150
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1892
|
3,575
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1894
|
4,000
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1896
|
7,300
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1898
|
6,150
|
|
Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
1900
|
5,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:492; Nelson, “Arbeiterpresse,” 100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Volné Listy
|
1910
|
4,500
|
|
New York Times, 8 May 1910
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Woman Rebel
|
1914
|
2,000+
|
2,000 sub. r
|
Sanger, 109
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Word
|
1880
|
1,050 e
|
|
Ayer 1880, 295
|
|
|
1881
|
1,200 s
|
|
Ayer 1881, 36
|
|
|
1882
|
1,300 s
|
|
Ayer 1882, 34
|
|
|
1883
|
1,300 e
|
|
Ayer 1883, 35
|
|
|
1884
|
1,300 e
|
|
Ayer 1884, 35
|
|
|
1885
|
2,050 s
|
|
Ayer 1885, 37
|
|
|
1886
|
2,050 s
|
|
Ayer 1886, 37
|
|
|
1888
|
2,050 s
|
|
Ayer 1888, 225
|
|
|
1889
|
2,025 s
|
|
Ayer 1889, 230
|
|
|
1890
|
2,040 s
|
|
Ayer 1890, 319
|
|
|
1893
|
2,040 e
|
|
Ayer 1893, 339
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Die Zukunft
|
1885
|
2,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:504
|
|
Bibliography
Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Avrich, Paul. Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Bekken, Jon. "The First Anarchist Daily Newspaper: The Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung," Anarchist Studies 3 (1995), 3-23.
Berman, Paul. “The Torch and the Axe: The Unknown Aftermath of the Sacco-Vanzetti Affair.” The Village Voice, 17 May 1988.
[Bluestein], Abe to Molly [Steimer] & Senya [Fléchine], 3 June 1938. Senya Fléchine Papers, folder 9, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Busha, S. “Free Society.” 25 February 1921. National Archives and Records Administration, Bureau of Investigation Records, File 202600-1081.
Caminita, Ludovico. “Twenty Years of Experience in the Radical Movement,” n.d. [c. 1923], unpublished manuscript, National Archives and Records Administration, Bureau of Investigation Records, File 61-115.
Carey,George. “‘La Questione Sociale,’ an Anarchist Newspaper in Paterson, New Jersey (1895-1908).” In Lydio Tomasi, ed., Italian Americans: New Perspectives in Italian Immigration and Ethnicity. Staten Island: Center for Migration Studies, 1985.
Carlson, Andrew R. Anarchism in Germany: The Early Movement. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1872.
Cartosio, Bruno. "Italian Workers and Their Press in the United States, 1900-1920." In Christian Harzig and Dirk Hoerder, eds., The Press of Labor Migrants in Europe and North America, 1880s to 1930s (Bremen: Publications of the Labor Newspaper Preservation Archive, 1985), 423-42.
Cohn, Michel A. to [Max] Nettlau, 8 February 1935. Max Nettlau Papers, folder 307, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Creagh, Ronald. “Socialism in America: The French-speaking Coal Miners in the Late Nineteenth Century.” In Marianne Debouzy, ed. In the Shadow of the Statue of Liberty: Immigrants, Workers, and Citizens in the American Republic, 1880-1920. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992, 143-156.
Davis, Jerome. The Russian Immigrant. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.
De Leon, Solon, ed. American Labor Press Directory. New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1925.
Dolgoff, Sam. Fragments: A Memoir. Cambridge: Refract Publications, 1986.
Ghormley, Kenneth O. “The L.F.D.B.A. Celebrates Its Centennial: Anarchy at Home.” The Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California. Online at <http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/ghorm99.htm>. (Accessed 1/22/08)
Gogura, Heather. “The Agitator,” The Labor Press Project. Online at <http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/Agitator.htm>. (Accessed 1/22/08)
Gordin, Abba. Sh. Yanovsky: zayn lebn, kemfn un shafn, 1864-1939. Los Angeles: Sh. Yanovksy Odenk Komitet, 1957.
Graur, Mina. An Anarchist “Rabbi”: The Life and Teachings of Rudolf Rocker. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Hoerder, Dirk (with Christiane Harzig), ed. The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s: An Annotated Bibliography. 3 vols. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
“Mailing List—‘Golos Truda’—Russian Nihilist Newspaper.” n.d. [c.1917]. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, File 54235/36-C.
Martin, James J. Men against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908. De Kalb: Adrian Allen Associates, 1953.
Maximov, Grigorii Petrovich to Mark Mrachnyi, 22 June 1925. Mark Mrachnyi Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Michels, Tony. A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1885-1909.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual Directory. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1910-1929.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1930-1940.
Nelson, Bruce C. “Arbeiterpresse und Arbeiterbewegung: Chicago’s Socialist and Anarchist Press, 1870-1900.” In Elliot Shore, Ken Fones-Wolf, & James P. Danky, eds., The German-American Radical Press: The Shaping of a Left Political Culture, 1850-1940. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992, 81-107.
Nelson, Bruce C. Beyond the Martyrs: A Social History of Chicago’s Anarchists, 1870-1900. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
Nold, Carl. “For Man!” Man! January 1934.
Oestreicher, Richard. “Robert Reitzel, Der Arme Teufel.” In Elliot Shore, Ken Fones-Wolf, & James P. Danky, eds., The German-American Radical Press: The Shaping of a Left Political Culture, 1850-1940. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992, 147-67.
Panofsky, Gianna S. “A View of Two Major Centers of Italian Anarchism in the United States: Spring Valley and Chicago, Illinois.” In Dominic Candeloro, Fred L. Gardaphe, & Paolo A. Giordano, eds., Italian Ethnics: Their Languages, Literature and Lives. Staten Island: The American Historical Association, 1990, 271-296.
Pateman, Barry.
Pernicone, Nunzio. Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. New York: Palgarve Macmillan, 2005.
Pernicone, Nunzio. “War among the Italian Anarchists: The Galleanisti’s Campaign Against Carlo Tresca.” In Philip V. Cannistraro & Gerald Meyer, eds., The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture. Westport CT: Praeger, 2003.
Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics with an Exposition and Discussion of the Steps Being Taken and Required and Curb It, Being the Report of the Joint Committee Investigating Seditious Activities, Filed April 24, 1920, in the Senate of the State of New York. 4 vols. Albany: J. B. Lyon, 1920.
Sanders, Ronald. The Downtown Jews: Portraits of an Immigrant Generation. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Sandos, James A. Rebellion in the Borderlands: Anarchism and the Plan of San Diego, 1904-1923. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
Sanger, Margaret. Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company 1938.
United States Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Rules. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer on Charges Made Against Department of Justice by Luis F. Post and Others. 66th Congress, 2nd Session. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920.
Veysey, Laurence. The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Counter-Cultures in Twentieth Century America. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.
IWW Periodical Circulation Figures, 1905-1940
compiled by Kenyon Zimmer
Key:
e = estimate
s = self-reported
r = recollection
p = private correspondence
Title
|
Year(s)
|
Circulation
|
Subscribers
|
Source
|
Notes
|
Ahjo
|
1919
|
500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bérmunkás
|
1925
|
6,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Fellow Worker
|
1920
|
12,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Felszabadulas
|
1919
|
800 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Golos Truzhenika
|
1919
|
1,500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
1922
|
700 e, 6,000 s
|
|
Davis, 126
|
Probably closer to 1,500
|
|
1925
|
1,400 p; 5,000 s
|
|
Maximov to Mrachnyi; De Leon, 11
|
De Leon definitely inflated
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrial Pioneer
|
1925
|
12,500 s
|
|
De Leon, 11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrial Solidarity
|
1924
|
16,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1924, 230
|
Too high
|
|
1925
|
8,000 s; 16,000 e
|
|
De Leon, 11; N. W. Ayer 1925, 237
|
Ayer too high
|
|
1926
|
15,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1926, 241
|
Definitely too high
|
|
1927
|
5,000-6,500
|
|
“Minutes of Regular Session,” 13-14
|
|
|
1928
|
3,400; 4,000
|
|
“Minutes of Regular Session,” 13-14
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrial Union Bulletin
|
1907
|
7,000
|
|
Brissenden, 184
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrial Unionist [IWW (EP)]
|
1925
|
4,500 s
|
|
De Leon, 11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrial Worker
|
1911
|
4,000
|
|
Foner, 4:150
|
|
|
1912
|
c.9,000
|
|
Foner, 4:150
|
|
|
1917
|
11,500
|
|
Foner, 4:150
|
|
|
1925
|
5,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industrialisti
|
1919
|
500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
Way too low
|
|
1920
|
10,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 1:215
|
|
|
1923
|
8,450
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1923, 1365
|
|
|
1925
|
9,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 11
|
|
|
1927
|
8,823
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1927, 1429
|
|
|
1929
|
9,800
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1929, 1356
|
|
|
1930
|
9,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1930, 1256
|
|
|
1931
|
9,000 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1931, 1231
|
|
|
1932
|
8,722
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1932, 1204
|
|
|
1933
|
8,722 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1933, 1202
|
|
|
1934
|
7,850 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1934, 1170
|
|
|
1935
|
8,250
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1935, 1165
|
|
|
1936
|
8,250 e
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1936, 1161
|
|
|
1940
|
6,200
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1940, 1249
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industriele Arbayter Shtime
|
1920
|
5,000 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jedna Velka Unie
|
1920
|
250 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
Way too low
|
|
1924
|
1,400
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 2:247
|
|
|
1925
|
3,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Klassenkampf
|
1919
|
5,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Luokkataistelu
|
1919
|
5,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marine Worker
|
1925
|
25,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
Inflated?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Muncitorul
|
1919
|
150 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
La Nueva Solidaridad
|
1919
|
500 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
probably too low; see Solidaridad
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The New Solidarity
|
1919
|
1,500
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Il Nuovo Proletario
|
1919
|
1,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
This seems too low; see Il Proletario
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One Big Union Monthly
|
1919
|
6,000 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Proletaras
|
1919
|
2,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Il Proletario
|
1900
|
3,000
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:102
|
|
|
1916
|
7,800
|
|
Hoerder, ed., 3:102
|
|
|
1925
|
7,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rabotnicheska Misul
|
1919
|
100 e
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rebel Worker
|
1919
|
12,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:1211
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Solidaridad
|
1925
|
7,500 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
|
|
1926
|
7,000
|
|
N. W. Ayer 1926, 1418
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Solidarity
|
1912
|
12,000 s
|
|
Foner, 4:150
|
Foner unsure of reliability of this figure
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tie Vapauteen
|
1919
|
5,000
|
|
Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004
|
|
|
1920
|
5,500; 3,500
|
|
Brown
|
|
|
1921
|
6,500
|
|
Brown
|
|
|
1925
|
8,000 s
|
|
De Leon, 12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Voice of the People
|
1913
|
1,500 r
|
|
Hall, 169
|
|
Bibliography
Brissenden, Paul Frederick. The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism. New York: Columbia University, 1919.
Brown, Roy. “‘High Spots of the 13th IWW Convention.” Industrial Pioneer, June 1921.
Davis, Jerome. The Russian Immigrant. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.
De Leon, Solon, ed. American Labor Press Directory. New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1925.
Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 4, The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917. New York: International Publishers, 1956.
Hall, Covington. Labor Struggles in the Deep South & Other Writings. Ed. David R. Roediger. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1999.
Hoerder, Dirk (with Christiane Harzig), ed. The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s: An Annotated Bibliography. 3 vols. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Maximov, Grigorii Petrovich to Mark Mrachnyi, 22 June 1925. Mark Mrachnyi Papers, Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Miles, Dione. Something in Common: An IWW Bibliography. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986.
“Minutes of Regular Session of the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World.” 15-23 March 1928. Industrial Workers of the World Collection, box 7, folder 14, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1869-1909.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual Directory. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1910-1929.
N. W. Ayer & Son’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son, 1930-1940.
Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics with an Exposition and Discussion of the Steps Being Taken and Required and Curb It, Being the Report of the Joint Committee Investigating Seditious Activities, Filed April 24, 1920, in the Senate of the State of New York. 4 vols. Albany: J. B. Lyon, 1920.
A Note on IWW and Other Periodicals Edited by Anarchists
Anarchists edited more than a dozen IWW publications—many of which were explicitly anarchist in outlook—before 1940, and in 1919-20 these had a combined circulation of over 23,000. They included the Finnish Luokkataistelu (Class Struggle, 1919) edited by Gus Alonen; and the Lithuanian Darbiniku Balsas (The Workers’ Voice, 1914-19) and Proletaras (Proletarian, 1919-23), both edited by the longtime anarchist Juozas Laukys. The Bulgarian Rabotnicheska Misul (Worker’s Thought) was edited by self-described Tolstoyan anarcho-syndicalist George Andreytchine (who later fled to Russia where he became a Communist and briefly served as the American representative on the Profintern), and its successor, Rabotnicheska Probuda (Worker’s Awakening, 1919-20), had its second-class matter status revoked by the authorities for its anarchist content. Spanish-speaking anarchists Herminio Gonzales and Aurelio Vicente Azuara edited Tampa’s El Obrero Industial (The Industrial Worker, 1914) and Los Angeles’ El Rebelde (The Rebel, 1915-17), respectively, and exiled Russian anarcho-syndicalist leader G. P. Maximoff, took over editorship of Golos Truzhenika (Toiler’s Voice, 1918-27) in 1924. Meanwhile, Swedish anarcho-syndicalist John Sandgren edited both Nya Världen (The New World, 1919) and the English-language One Big Union Monthly from 1919-20, until his outspoken criticisms of the Russian Bolshevik regime, based on reports in the European anarchist press, resulted in his removal. His fellow Swedish anarchist Gustav E. Bergman, however, later edited Seattle’s Industri-Arbetaren (Industrial Worker, 1924-25), while birth-control advocate and Socialist-turned-anarchist Frederick A. Blossom edited The Labor Defender (1918).
Other trade union papers edited by anarchists include the International Ladie's Garment Workers' Union organ Justice, edited by longtime Fraye Arbeter Shtime editor Saul Yanovsky beginning in 1919, then by fellow Jewish anarchist Simon Farber. The Hotel Worker, paper of the revolutionary syndicalist International Federation of Workers in the Hotel, Restaurant, Club, and Catering Industries, was edited by the anarchist Jack Isaacson, and had a circulation of 15,000 in 1920 and 7,000 in 1925 (Revolutionary Radicalism, 2:2004; De Leon, 10). Within the Yiddish-language press Philadelphia's Di Idishe Velt (The Jewish World, 1914-42) was founded and edited by socialists and anarchists in its early years, and Russian Revolution veteran Abba Gordin edited the literary journal Yidishe Shriftn (Yiddish Writing, 1936-57), while anarchsits also frequently wrote for the socialist Forverts, independent Der Tog, and socialist-territorialist papers. The editors of the free-thought The Truth Seeker and the magazine Twentieth Century both became avowed anarchists for a time near the turn of the century and reflected this in their publications' content, as did Little Review editor Magaret Anderson. Finally, The Catholic Worker was founded in 1933 by self-identified Catholic anarchists Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin and carried an implicitly Christian anarchist viewpoint through most of its existence. With a circulation that soared to 185,000 by 1940, it was far and away the largest-circulating anarchist-influenced publication in the history of America and, perhaps, the world, excluding Spain.
Anarchist newspaper circulation
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