Emma Goldman, the anarchist feminist political philosopher, was known throughout her lifetime as the "High Priestess of Anarchy." To the tabloids, she was "Red Emma, Queen of the Anarchists." Today, she is heralded as a founder of anarcha-feminism and remembered for her feminist credo: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution."
Over the course of an extraordinary revolutionary lifetime, Emma Goldman challenged a long list of towering adversaries: the police, the U.S. prison system, Anthony Comstock (champion of the anti-birth control Comstock laws), J. Edgar Hoover, and Vladimir Lenin. She was an early and outspoken critic of homophobia at a time when such a position was rare, including among anarchists, and mentored Margaret Sanger in the fight for birth control access. Her legacy has continued to inspire radical thinkers for a century. Historian Howard Zinn wrote a play about her life; artist Jenny Holzer used her writings in a searing print series. Though we tend to think of the history of radical political thought as overwhelmingly male, Goldman offers a fierce feminist intervention. This anthology organizes her most relevant writings, speeches, and interviews according to her perennial concerns, including marriage, prostitution, prisons and political violence.
This new edition includes a foreword by Vivian Gornick, an interview of Goldman by pathbreaking journalist Nelly Bly, and a biographical timeline.