We discuss the Sacco and Vanzetti trial and what it can tell us about Boston, the United States and the world in the 1920s with Moshik Temkin, Johnson and Johnson Visiting Chair at Tsinghua University and Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and author of the Cundhill Prize nominated book The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial.
Readings:
Mug battle question (courtesy of Prof. Temkin): What link (direct and physical, not metaphorical/thematic) do Sacco and Vanzetti have to Donald Trump?
Answer: In 2005, Donald Trump and Felix Sater sought unsuccessfully to build a Trump property in Moscow at the site of the former Sacco and Vanzetti Pencil Factory. Congratulations to Millie Mcchesney for getting what may well be our toughest question yet!
Further reading: It’s worth reading Sacco and Vanzetti in their own voices, which you can do with The letters of Sacco and Vanzetti (Penguin, 1997). To read some documents and testimony associated with the case see Michael M. Topp’s short collection The Sacco Vanzetti Case: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003).
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Dedham courthouse today.
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