Summary

Among the French anarchist terrorists of years 1892-1894, Emile Henry is at the same time the one who embodies this period of violence the most and, paradoxically, distances herself from the traditional image of a bomber. A young intellectual who was initially critical of blind terrorism, he changed his view before the media impact of the Ravachol attacks. On 8th November at the premises of the “Mines de Carmaux” in Paris, 1892 he planted a bomb which later exploded, after being discovered and moved to the police station in the “Rue des Bons Enfants”. On February 13, 1894 he struck at the Café Terminus. Condemned to death at the age of 21 years, he was executed in the “Place de la Roquette”. The radical actions of Emile Henry caused a widening of the rift within Propaganda by the Deed and brought to light the differences present within anarchism, between those with a social approach and the partisans of individualism. Finally, after the failure of Propaganda by the Deed, most of the militants turned towards the individual approach of the struggle by launching themselves, by the means trade unions, into the conversion of the working classes.