First section first thoughts, possible spoilers 3-118

[Paul Nightingale]

To continue with the threat to order ...

6. A discourse of terrorism (aka anarchy) is important in ATD, but in the
first section this is only referenced by those who don't (necessarily)
understand what they speak of, or have direct access to it: eg Nate on "them
damned anarchistic foreign-born" (46). Lew gets a lot of work from
"Anarchist-related tickets" (51), from which one can infer that such fears,
on the part of his employers, are good for business. On 66 the text notes
that "the police had turned their attention to Anarchism in the streetcar
workers' union"; and subsequently (on 85) we have Webb's view that
explosions are set off by the owners, not anarchists. Even the Reverend
Gatlin refers to "those French Anarchists" (87). Such scattered references
imply that anarchism is elsewhere.

7. Arguably Ch8 takes the reader into the anarchist community to establish
Webb as a bomber, but "those anarchistic bastards" (92) invokes the
perspective of the mine-owners and their "detectives" (quotation marks of
course in the original). 

8. Political assassinations are invoked indirectly; Franz Ferdinand appears
in Chicago (Ch6) and the McKinley figurehead is "seriously damaged" (109)
leading to conflict on the airship over its replacement. Similarly, James'
The Princess Cassamassima (6) might be described as a novel 'about'
anarchists; however, and more accurately, perhaps, it might be described as
a novel featuring characters who approach anarchism from a distance. As in
ATD itself, anarchism in PC is elsewhere, to be made sense of, spoken of.