Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman
Chicago, May 4, 1886. In the Haymarket region of the city, a peaceful Labor Day demonstration suddenly turns into a riot. The police intervene to maintain peace, but they soon...
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Chicago, May 4, 1886. In the Haymarket region of the city, a
peaceful Labor Day demonstration suddenly turns into a riot. The
police intervene to maintain peace, but they soon use violence to
quell the mob and a bomb is thrown, resulting in death and injuries
to scores of people. In the widely publicized trial that followed,
eight anarchists were condemned to death or life imprisonment,
convicted of conspiracy, though none of them had actually thrown
the bomb. A young Russian immigrant, Emma Goldman, had arrived just
the previous year in the United States. She was deeply affected by
what came to be known as the Haymarket Affair. She took on various
jobs, including that of a factory worker before becoming a writer
and lecturer committed to anarchist philosophy. In the years to
follow, she and her lover planned to assassinate a well known
financier and industrialist. Though the victim survived, Goldman's
lover was sentenced to life imprisonment while she received a
lesser sentence. However, she continued to spend time in and out of
jail for various activities including distribution of literature
regarding birth control, inducing people not to join the newly
introduced military draft etc. She was deported back to Russia but
found the regime there highly repressive and lived in Canada,
England and France. She wrote passionately about issues that
concerned humanity including prisons, religion, marriage, free
love, the right of choice, capitalism, homosexuality, gender
politics and militarism. Anarchism and Other Essays was first
published by her own publishing house, Mother Earth. It opens with
an introduction by Hippolyte Havel, a Czech anarchist who lived in
Greenwich Village in New York. He was a great friend of the
playwright, Eugene O'Neill, who based some of the characters in his
plays on Havel. Havel provides a detailed biography of Emma Goldman
and ends with a stirring call to emancipate humanity. Emma
Goldman's preface describes her own journey and motives. Twelve
chapters delineate Goldman's philosophy and ideas. They include
thoughts on Minorities versus Majorities, Prisons: A Social Crime
and Failure, The Hypocrisy of Puritanism, Marriage and Love, The
Tragedy of Women's Emancipation and several more. Living in an age
marked by the rise of unbridled capitalism, self righteousness,
imperialism and greed, in these essays she writes simply,
passionately, earnestly and penetratingly about ideas and ideals
and how individuals are constantly in conflict with society.
Goldman wrote ceaselessly; her works include pamphlets, essays,
books and tracts. As an interesting and radical viewpoint,
Anarchism and Other Essays is a thought provoking read which was
also strangely prophetic about the future of politics to come.
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