The assassination of the heir of the Austro Hungarian Empire at Sarajevo in July 1914 was not the cause of World War I, but its pretext. The big picture then was not the anarchist plot to destabilize empires, but the rise of exasperated nationalisms, coupled with the suicidal instinct of a decaying order and the fatal mechanism of the logic of secret alliances.

In the years 1917 to 1919, US participation in World War I and anarchist bombings after the war led to almost two thousand federal prosecutions, mass roundups of aliens, and summary deportations. During World War II, Japan s attack on the US was followed by the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans because of their race, including many who were born in the US.