Paperback, 200 pages
English language
Published Jan. 14, 2025 by AK Press.
Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchism in America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. This collection, first published in 1910 by her press, Mother Earth Publishing Association, illustrates her wide-reaching mind and ability to bring together strands of American and European individualism, anarchist communism, and early feminist thinking to develop a body of work that continues to influence the theory and practice of anarchism today. Essays include "Anarchism: What It Really Stands For," "The Psychology of Political Violence," "Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure," "The Hypocrisy of Puritanism," "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation," and "Marriage and Love," among others.
A new introduction by Moran and Pateman situates Goldman's thinking in the movement of her day but also makes clear why her essays are still vital. Annotations throughout bring to light individuals and events that enrich our understanding of Goldman's writings.
I especially appreciated the presentation of the copy I had (with a biography leading, then the essays themselves).
Re-read for me.
A solid collection of essays from a prominent anarchist thinker.
More focused on theory than praxis, but an essential book for anyone interested in anarchism.
I love emma goldman, i love anarchist theory. Its a golden book written without prose that is too embellishing and is piercingly direct and cuttingly witty and sharp. She does not spare the ego of any of her opponents. There were difficult essays for me to read and grasp her intent especially her essays on womens emancipation and sufferage. Though her views are so shatteringly radical that they seem oppositional to otherwise useful tenets such as emancipation and sufferage, i get the point that shes trying to ultimately make. The only reason that this book gets four instead of five stars is because it is undeniably an echo chamber with no significant basis of praxis, mobilization or instruction for direct action. As a piece of unbridled theory it is five out of five, as a practical manual it unfortunately let me down in some ways.
Easy to finish in a …
I love emma goldman, i love anarchist theory. Its a golden book written without prose that is too embellishing and is piercingly direct and cuttingly witty and sharp. She does not spare the ego of any of her opponents. There were difficult essays for me to read and grasp her intent especially her essays on womens emancipation and sufferage. Though her views are so shatteringly radical that they seem oppositional to otherwise useful tenets such as emancipation and sufferage, i get the point that shes trying to ultimately make. The only reason that this book gets four instead of five stars is because it is undeniably an echo chamber with no significant basis of praxis, mobilization or instruction for direct action. As a piece of unbridled theory it is five out of five, as a practical manual it unfortunately let me down in some ways.
Easy to finish in a week of light reading.
Excellent stuff.
To be fair, I'm prone to a biiiit of hyperbole when I write small reviews for books that I really enjoy. I love reading, I love being excited, 2+2=4 and I just go.
However, this book deserves all of the gushing praise I can give it and so much more. I came to Emma Goldman's writing very late, and while that's equal parts saddening and frustrating, I'm so so happy that I've finally read Anarchism and Other Essays. This book is a collection of short essays written by Goldman about democracy, capitalism, anarchism, voting, prisons, marriage, education, property, love, and drama, and all of the ways in which societies are built, structured, and reinforced to disenfranchise the working class, women, children, and people of color. Anarchism and Other Essays is as enlightening as it sobering, scathing as it is cathartic, and should be required reading.
I'm going to stop here …
To be fair, I'm prone to a biiiit of hyperbole when I write small reviews for books that I really enjoy. I love reading, I love being excited, 2+2=4 and I just go.
However, this book deserves all of the gushing praise I can give it and so much more. I came to Emma Goldman's writing very late, and while that's equal parts saddening and frustrating, I'm so so happy that I've finally read Anarchism and Other Essays. This book is a collection of short essays written by Goldman about democracy, capitalism, anarchism, voting, prisons, marriage, education, property, love, and drama, and all of the ways in which societies are built, structured, and reinforced to disenfranchise the working class, women, children, and people of color. Anarchism and Other Essays is as enlightening as it sobering, scathing as it is cathartic, and should be required reading.
I'm going to stop here because I could obviously keep going, but I truly and deeply love this book and admire Emma Goldman so much after reading it.
It is nearly impossible to find a person as magnificent as Red Emma. Her autobiography tells us of a vibrant, emotionally alive, woman, who preceded the zeitgeist in almost a millennia. A gifted orator, her essays are simultaneously rich and easy to follow. She will not raise her nose at the reader. Her ideal is freedom, true freedom, not fake give-your-liberties-to-the-CEO-or-PM freedom. Anyone who will read her works will find immense relevance even to our times in all topics. One of the greatest political thinkers of all times - the beloved Goldman.
It took me a year or two of marching with a black bandanna on, going to Anarchist Black Cross meetings, sitting in with Food Not Bombs, going anti-commercial Christmas caroling, reading radical literature, talking to former squatters, and playing folk punk shows, but at a certain point I realized the "anarchist scene" wasn't for me. If I had read this book earlier, I feel like I may have saved myself some trouble.
I think many of Goldman's points, in many of her essays, raise valid concerns. I believe that, in some ways, her commentary on America's power structure remains true to this day (with an increasingly authoritarian government, it makes sense). But, unfortunately, many of her essays just aren't relevant anymore, and some of her concerns seem outdated to the point of being rightist/conservative.
Take for example, in her discussion of the military, she argues that one example of the …
It took me a year or two of marching with a black bandanna on, going to Anarchist Black Cross meetings, sitting in with Food Not Bombs, going anti-commercial Christmas caroling, reading radical literature, talking to former squatters, and playing folk punk shows, but at a certain point I realized the "anarchist scene" wasn't for me. If I had read this book earlier, I feel like I may have saved myself some trouble.
I think many of Goldman's points, in many of her essays, raise valid concerns. I believe that, in some ways, her commentary on America's power structure remains true to this day (with an increasingly authoritarian government, it makes sense). But, unfortunately, many of her essays just aren't relevant anymore, and some of her concerns seem outdated to the point of being rightist/conservative.
Take for example, in her discussion of the military, she argues that one example of the evils it can cause is the "sex perversion" of "male prostitution". Putting aside any discussion about morality with respect to prostitution itself, it seems evident that her true concern is men bunking so close to one another. These pages in the essay entitled "Patriotism" might find renewed use in pro-Don't Ask Don't Tell pamphlets or the like.(Her Wikipedia claims that she was vehemently against discrimination targeting the GLBTQ community, as it were, during her time, but no supporting evidence is contained herein.)
Likewise, her discussions of sex and gender are frequently suspect, as she ascribes trait after trait to misrepresented groups of women's rights organizers, etc, and frequently attacks first wave feminists in the later essays.
In terms of dating herself, one has only to look at her essay on Puritanism, or on the current dramas of her time (which she feels the need to summarize for us, one after the other, only to reiterate her point that drama is a useful vehicle for political advocacy as her BIG CONCLUSION).
I can't really blame Emma Goldman for her missteps in these essays--they were written at the turn of the century. But I CAN blame contemporary anarchists for ruining any decent points Goldman makes by cherry-picking sentimentality from her meandering antique rhetorical arguments and subsequently wheat-pasting slogans all over campus. Regardless, "it was okay" is the best I can give this collection.
