View source for The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents by Alex Butterworth

{{infobox1
|title=The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents
|sort= World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents
|author=Alex Butterworth
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=History
|summary=Fascinating account of anarchists and the secret agents chasing them in the late 19th century which is somewhat unwieldy at times – just because of the amount it covers - but never less than riveting.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=544
|publisher=Vintage
|date=March 2011
|isbn=978-0099551928
|cover=0099551926
|aznuk=0099551926
|aznus=0099551926
}}

In deciding to write about political upheaval across Europe, including Russia, Alex Butterworth has chosen a massive topic for this entertaining book. So massive, in fact, that when I tried reading it without first looking through the pen pictures at the start of the main players I was quickly completely lost. My mistake – the short, sharp, pen pictures, which cover sixteen pages and detail all the major anarchists and secret agents are completely invaluable and helped my reading of the book enormously.

The World That Never Was is an astonishing achievement for Butterworth in many ways. With the main body weighing in at around 400 pages of rather small type, and a comprehensive timeline, bibliography and notes on sources in addition to those pen pictures it's clear that the author has done a huge amount of research on such a wide-ranging subject. Whether it's France, Russia, Switzerland, England or even America that the author is talking about he's clearly hugely
knowledgeable on his subject and sprinkles in some incredible facts along with the drier history – I'm personally desperate to learn more about the 'psychic snails' that certain people believed in!

If there's a criticism which stops a book this informative from reaching the five star mark for me personally, it's that it's slightly hard-going at times because of the length and because the author's style can occasionally be just a tad too dry. It's value is also perhaps slightly reduced for the casual reader simply because a fairly strong knowledge of European history at the time is needed to get the most out of it. Nevertheless this is a book which I'm extremely happy to recommend to all serious history buffs, particularly since the
introduction ties the events into the current 'War on Terror' and the closing stages of the book show how the 19th century happenings led to 20th century events such as the two World Wars.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: If you're interested in how events around a hundred years ago are still affecting us today, [[A Senseless Squalid War: Voices From Palestine 1890s - 1948 by Norman Rose]] is a stunning book.

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