The World That Never Was

Butterworth has created an impressive work which will captivate those unfamiliar with anarchist history and teach even specialists much that they did not know before

Independent

Compelling and insightful... The World That Never Was is a compelling narrative history both of a generation of demonised and battered - but optimistic - revolutionaries...and of the political police forces ranged against them

Stuart Christie, Guardian

A rich and passionate account of the world's first international terrorist campaign... Brilliant... A thrilling and important book

Sunday Times

One of the most absorbing depictions of the dark underside of radical politics in many years...a riveting account, teeming with intrigue and adventure and packed with the most astonishing characters

New Statesman

This is an amazing book full of incredible people all of whom turn out to be real and unbelievable stories, all of which turn out be true... A genuine tour de force

David Aaronovitch

Intriguing, provocative and written with a novelist's eye for detail, this book is an engrossing journey into a murky, subterranean world

Mike Rapport, BBC History Magazine

One of the most absorbing depictions of the dark underside of radical politics in many years... Butterworth has opted to present the anarchists in a mode that emphasises narrative over analysis. The result is a riveting account, teeming with intrigue and adventure and packed with the most astonishing characters. One cannot help wishing there were more extended analysis, however, for when Butterworth does offer broader observations, they are exceptionally astute.

John Gray, New Statesman

Alex Butterworth, in this wide-ranging account of 19th-century anarchist activity, does justice to both sides of the picture - the glowing ideal, its shady enactment

Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Daily Telegraph

Sweeping, extensively researched

Leo McKinstry, Express