The Committee of Vigilance: The Law and Order Committee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Its War Against the Left, 1916 - 1919

Steven Levi discusses and analyzes the rise and fall of the last of the old western vigilance committees - and the rise of the first modern American committee devoted to ferreting out ‘Un- American activities’ among the laboring poor, union leaders, progressive politicians and social activists. The Preparedness Day bombing of 1916 was the catalyst (along with the Los Angeles Times bombing several years earlier) for full scale civic strife and class violence in San Francisco. The committee railroaded two men to the death house - Tom Mooney and Warren Billings - and their cause became one of the most celebrated in Socialist and Communist movements throughout the world in the 20’s and 30’s. Levi has done more research on the bombing and its polarizing aftermath since his first research monograph 30 years ago. This work includes new material on terror and American culture as well discussions of material that has only become public in the last few decades.