Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was an anarchist writer, lecturer and activist, born in the Russian Empire, who emigrated to the United States in 1885 and became one of its most famous radicals. She edited the magazine Mother Earth, campaigned for free speech and birth control, and was imprisoned for opposing conscription in the First World War. Deported to Russia in 1919, she became an early critic of the Bolshevik state. Anarchism and Other Essays sets out her case against the state, property, organised religion and conventional marriage.

Key ideas

• Anarchism aims at freedom from the domination of religion, property and government.
• Real freedom for women requires inner emancipation, not only the vote.
• Prostitution and conventional marriage are both shaped by women's economic dependence.
• Patriotism serves those in power by turning ordinary people against one another.
• A revolution that builds a new centralised state betrays the freedom it promised.

Major works

• Anarchism and Other Essays (1910)
• The Social Significance of the Modern Drama (1914)
• My Disillusionment in Russia (1923)
• Living My Life (1931)

In the Book corner

• Anarchism and Other Essays 1910 · Beginner
  A collection of essays and lectures by the anarchist Emma Goldman, published in New York in 1910 by her own Mother Earth…

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