Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 1: Made for America, 1890-1901

Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years #1

by Emma Goldman, Candace Falk, Barry Pateman

Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years redefines the historical memory of Emma Goldman and illuminates a forgotten yet influential facet of the history of American and European radicalism. This definitive multivolume work, which differs significantly from Goldman’s autobiography, presents original texts—a significant group of which are published in or translated into English for the first time—anchored by rigorous contextual annotations. The distillation of years of scholarly research, these volumes include personal correspondence, newspaper articles, government surveillance reports from America and Europe, dramatic court transcripts, unpublished lecture notes, and an array of other rare items and documentation. Biographical, newspaper, and organizational appendixes are complemented by in-depth chronologies that underscore the complexity of Goldman’s political and social milieu.

The first volume, Made for America, 1890–1901, tracks the young Emma Goldman’s introduction into the anarchist movement, features her earliest known writings in the German anarchist press, and charts her gradual emergence from the radical immigrant circles of New York City’s Lower East Side into a political and intellectual culture of both national and international importance. Goldman’s remarkable public ascendance is framed within a volatile period of political violence: within the first few pages, Henry Clay Frick, the anti-union industrialist, is shot by Alexander Berkman, Goldman’s lover; the book ends with the assassination of President William McKinley, an act in which Goldman was falsely implicated. The documents surrounding these events shed light on difficult issues—and spark an important though chilling debate about Goldman’s strategy for reconciling her "beautiful vision" of anarchism and the harsh realities of her times.

The documents articulate the force of Goldman’s rage, tracing the development of her political and social critique as well as her originality and her remarkable ability to synthesize and popularize cutting-edge political and cultural ideas. Goldman appears as a rising luminary in the mainstream press—a voice against hypocrisy and a lightning rod of curiosity, intrigue, and sometimes fear. The volumes include newspaper accounts of the speaking tours across America that eventually established her reputation as one of the most challenging and passionate orators of the twentieth century.

Themes that came to dominate Goldman’s life—anarchism and its possibilities, free speech, education, the transformative power and social significance of literature, the position of labor within the capitalist economic system, the vital importance of women’s freedom, the dynamics of personal relationships, and strategies for a social revolution—are among the many introduced in Made for America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Politics

675 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2003

About the author

Emma Goldman was a feminist anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania), Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement.Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands.

She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Although Frick survived the attempt on his life, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth.

In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia.

Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. In 1923, she wrote a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto on May 14, 1940, aged 70.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution.Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Reviews

[Elevate Difference · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume 1 is a thorough and well-organized compilation of the letters, essays, speeches, court transcripts, and media accounts of Emma Goldman from 1890 through 1901. The editors begin with an overall synopsis of what is covered in the documents, which is essentially an overview of Goldman’s life during the eleven years covered - including a great deal of background information about the anarchist movement through which Goldman worked. Following the synopsis are letters and assorted documents, in chronological order, and the end contains a glossary, of sorts, of important people, periodicals, and organizations, with brief summaries of each.

Because of the excellent job the editors do providing background information and explanations of the nuances of various social and political movements at play during the time period, the book is ideal even for a reader with no prior knowledge of Emma Goldman, the anarchist movement, or even late nineteenth century United States and European history. Through skilled footnoting and remarkably accessible prose, all of these things are explained in an orderly manner, leaving few questions in the reader’s mind about the events, while opening the door to an infinite number of ideological and philosophical questions.

Inevitably, since the book is covering the story of a woman, it has to include an in-depth analysis of her wardrobe, traditional feminine qualities, and personal style. Not to blame the editors – they simply provide and analyze information that was written about Goldman in the media. An interesting quote has Goldman complaining that the news media concentrated only on sensationalist news, making it difficult for anyone to really know what is going on in the world. Regrettably, if she came back to life today, she may scarcely notice that 100 years of alleged progress have come to pass.

Some of the most interesting documents are letters written to Goldman by her lover and comrade Alexander Berkman while he was in prison for the attempted assassination of Henry Frick. She spent a year in prison as well, for telling a crowd they were entitled to steal bread if they would otherwise starve. The book includes poignant essays that she subsequently published, shedding light on the prison system and holding herself up as proof that - even in “free” America - threats to the status quo were unwelcome and punished. Other documents in this book illustrate her radical views of what feminist motherhood might look like and her belief in free love without state or church intervention through the institution of marriage.

It’s difficult to condense a fascinating 617 page collection into a few paragraphs, but the overall relevance of a compilation of Goldman’s life work is invaluable for furthering political, social, and economic discourse - not because she provided real solutions to the timeless issues of class struggle and gender inequality, but because of the courage and tenacity with which she raised and confronted them.

Review by Staci Schoff

[Craig Bolton]

"Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume One: Made for America, 1890-1901 by Emma Goldman (2003)"