What do you think?
Rate this book
Emma Goldman: La révolution comme mode de vie
xxx
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
37 people are currently reading
1277 people want to read
About the author
Vivian Gornick
44 books1,169 followersVivian Gornick is the author of, among other books, the acclaimed memoir Fierce Attachments and three essay collections: The End of the Novel of Love, Approaching Eye Level, and, most recently, The Men in My Life. She lives in New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 28, 2021
When I think of anarchism, two writers come to my mind, who transmit the feeling of dissenting Institution. Any institution. One is Thoreau, who in his writing will forever be that person who says if you do not agree with what your government stands for, then you must not be a part of it. Also John Cage, who applied the idealism of anarchy also to his artistic process, he was always an anarchist in spirit. Emma Goldman is someone I will now think of when I think of how anarchism can apply to life. She was a true radical.
I felt a little funny at times while reading this, since I sensed that it was all too centered on her emotions. Since this is the first time I have approached her, I can’t say that I feel I know her enough. But this biography is a great introduction, even if I come away sensing she was always a bomb ready to explode.
I loved learning of New York at the beginning of the XX century. The Lower East Side just sounds like it was an amazing place to be at the time, and I will definitely search for more books on the subject. Also the misunderstanding between feminists and all that Goldman was about. And how the feminists in the 60’s had more affinities with her that the feminists in her own time. Some of hew views on women seem like a scandal now, but that is why it’s good to understand where she was at. Against Institution.
Gornick to me is a teacher on all subjects, and that is why I came to this book. I am glad I did, I will follow some of the lines of this, to learn more of anarchism and ideals that make the world a better place to be.
I can’t help but leave with that iconic phrase by Goldman, in which she expresses that radicalism, and activism, can only be worth it when joy is a part of it. This is a phrase that I think still inspires even now, if whatever we do, whatever way we intend to change the world, without joy, it really makes no sense.
“ If I can’t dance, I’m not coming to your revolution.”
“Felt, was the operative word. She always claimed that the ideas of anarchism were of secondary use if grasped only with one’s reasoning intelligence; it was necessary to ‘feel them in every fiber like a flame, a consuming fever, an elemental passion.’ This, in essence was the core of Goldman’s radicalism: an imassioned faith, lodged in the nervous system, that feelings were everything. Radical politics for her was, in fact, the history of one’s own hurt, thwarted, humiliated feelings at the hands of institutionalized authority."
I felt a little funny at times while reading this, since I sensed that it was all too centered on her emotions. Since this is the first time I have approached her, I can’t say that I feel I know her enough. But this biography is a great introduction, even if I come away sensing she was always a bomb ready to explode.
I loved learning of New York at the beginning of the XX century. The Lower East Side just sounds like it was an amazing place to be at the time, and I will definitely search for more books on the subject. Also the misunderstanding between feminists and all that Goldman was about. And how the feminists in the 60’s had more affinities with her that the feminists in her own time. Some of hew views on women seem like a scandal now, but that is why it’s good to understand where she was at. Against Institution.
Gornick to me is a teacher on all subjects, and that is why I came to this book. I am glad I did, I will follow some of the lines of this, to learn more of anarchism and ideals that make the world a better place to be.
I can’t help but leave with that iconic phrase by Goldman, in which she expresses that radicalism, and activism, can only be worth it when joy is a part of it. This is a phrase that I think still inspires even now, if whatever we do, whatever way we intend to change the world, without joy, it really makes no sense.
“ If I can’t dance, I’m not coming to your revolution.”
“Felt, was the operative word. She always claimed that the ideas of anarchism were of secondary use if grasped only with one’s reasoning intelligence; it was necessary to ‘feel them in every fiber like a flame, a consuming fever, an elemental passion.’ This, in essence was the core of Goldman’s radicalism: an imassioned faith, lodged in the nervous system, that feelings were everything. Radical politics for her was, in fact, the history of one’s own hurt, thwarted, humiliated feelings at the hands of institutionalized authority."
April 28, 2016
Tells you more about Gornick's opinions than Goldman's life, and Gornick's opinions are not interesting, not informed, and not worth your attention imo.
I'm not too familiar with either the history of labour activism or the history of anarchist thought but from studying Russian literature, I do know that on PAGE 1 of this book, Gornick misattributes a VERY famous passage of Nechaev's 'Catechism of a Revolutionary' to Bakunin. How embarrassing.
I also hate how she writes about Goldman. For one thing, it's more about Goldman's character (read: Gornick's interpretation of Goldman's character) than her politics or achievements i.e. the first chapter of the book is entitled "Temperament." I find this approach insulting to Goldman, and to women in general.
Also, I don't understand the tone of this book at all? What is this passage: "Emma was touched and moved - stirred, in fact, to her very depths - for which read, manipulated and seduced; in all probability she slept with him, as she no doubt did with other of the comrades who came on to her in the same way." (p. 25) What? Why? Yikes.
I also hate Gornick's opinions i.e. Gornick compares radical feminists to manarchists ... SUCH an idiocy, ugh.
What a waste of time.
I'm not too familiar with either the history of labour activism or the history of anarchist thought but from studying Russian literature, I do know that on PAGE 1 of this book, Gornick misattributes a VERY famous passage of Nechaev's 'Catechism of a Revolutionary' to Bakunin. How embarrassing.
I also hate how she writes about Goldman. For one thing, it's more about Goldman's character (read: Gornick's interpretation of Goldman's character) than her politics or achievements i.e. the first chapter of the book is entitled "Temperament." I find this approach insulting to Goldman, and to women in general.
Also, I don't understand the tone of this book at all? What is this passage: "Emma was touched and moved - stirred, in fact, to her very depths - for which read, manipulated and seduced; in all probability she slept with him, as she no doubt did with other of the comrades who came on to her in the same way." (p. 25) What? Why? Yikes.
I also hate Gornick's opinions i.e. Gornick compares radical feminists to manarchists ... SUCH an idiocy, ugh.
What a waste of time.
January 14, 2012
This book made me really love Emma Goldman. Did you know that Emma Goldman gave lectures for working class people on homosexuality in like 1920? Like actually. The author's writing is strange mix of dry and enthusiastic that I found very charming. The organization of the book made it a little hard to follow the chronology but I wasn't too bothered. I also was depressed by this book because Emma Goldman was ahead of her time and also... our time. All of her concerns are directly connected to the social problems we are still dealing with! She would fit right in at OWS. Also, it is somehow comforting to know that even Emma Goldman had crazy love life problems.
This is my favorite part of the book: "Emma, absurdly enough, tried to raise money... by selling herself... But she was so awkward at it that her first night out on the street a kindly man took her into a saloon, bought her a beer, gave her ten dollars, and told her to forget it; she didn't have the knack." <3
This is my favorite part of the book: "Emma, absurdly enough, tried to raise money... by selling herself... But she was so awkward at it that her first night out on the street a kindly man took her into a saloon, bought her a beer, gave her ten dollars, and told her to forget it; she didn't have the knack." <3
September 25, 2016
Very strange to read a book about Emma Goldman written by someone who is often outright contemptuous of anarchists. Gornick isn't a bad writer, technically, she just has very limited understanding of anarchism, critiques of monogamy, or the anti-authoritarian left in general. It makes for an eyebrow-raising read. Still, the author clearly has respect for Emma herself and I can appreciate some of the critiques. Just don't make this the only thing you read about Emma.
June 25, 2014
This is a lousy book. Gornick is completely out of her depth. Minor mistakes are revealing. For example, she mistakenly refers to the IWW as the "International Workers of the World" (the acronym stands for "Industrial Workers of the World"). Ok, fine, but it says a lot about her familiarity with the subject. Still, a minor mistake. But within the first two pages of the book, she mistakenly attributes a quote to Mikhail Bakunin that serves as a major theme of her book: "The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no name. Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the single passion for revolution." Gornick contrasts this statement with Emma Goldman's strenuous objections to such revolutionary self-abnegation. She then repeatedly alludes throughout the book to Bakunin's supposedly grim, single-minded revolutionary outlook. The problem is, Bakunin never actually said it. These words belong to Sergei Nechaev ("The Revolutionary Catechism" [1869]), an ex-protege of Bakunin's and self-styled nihilist anarchist. The rest of the book is mediocre at best, but it's hard to take liberal pontificating seriously when the author approaches as formidable and admirable a personality as Emma Goldman and does not even bother to check basic, basic facts. I realize editorial skills are short supply, but Yale University Press should do better. Very sloppy work. *** Alternatively, there are many excellent biographies of this amazing woman - most recently the Avrich's "Sasha and Emma" from 2012 I believe, but my favorite is Richard Drinnon's classic: "Rebel in Paradise"
May 30, 2024
4,5⭐️
Molt bo l’eix GG (Gornick-Goldman): la primera ajuda a posar en contexte la segona, amb les seves virtuts i també els seus defectes i contradiccions. I quina enveja em fa tota aquesta gent del Lower East Side de finals del s. XIX. Molts no arribaven ni a fer 50 anys però que bonic ha de ser tenir l’esperança que la revolució la tens a tocar
Molt bo l’eix GG (Gornick-Goldman): la primera ajuda a posar en contexte la segona, amb les seves virtuts i també els seus defectes i contradiccions. I quina enveja em fa tota aquesta gent del Lower East Side de finals del s. XIX. Molts no arribaven ni a fer 50 anys però que bonic ha de ser tenir l’esperança que la revolució la tens a tocar
March 29, 2012
You get lots of gossipy stuff here like the fact that Emma was regularly whipped by her father and her mentoring by the German anarchist Most. Gornick is not kind to radical leftists, seeing them from her exalted perch of a liberal intellectual who is post-modernist done with the silliness of grand narratives. Gornicks' annoyingly obvious biases may put you off, if you know much of anything behind the history of left faction fights of the 19th and 20th centuries. And then you get unintentional admissions of ignorance e.g. when Gornick calls the IWW the International Workers of the World and the attempt to label the Socialist Labor Party as being against revolution and for mere reformism. Ugh. And her portrayal of Eugene Debs as being a 'utopian socialist'.
Emma was the revolutionary subject par excellence. In my opinion, she was right to favour that stance rather than the self-sacrificing stance of say, the typical Stakonvite Stalinist militant or guilt ridden 'white skin privilege radical of today. Remember, the workers will always be ready to sacrifice to the last militant. Emma embraced the passion of life in contrast with her self-sacrificing anarchist comrades ready to put their heads in a noose and die for the 'Cause'. Hooray! She didn't really embrace class wide organisation of the proletariat and thus fell into the swamp of all those with insufficient class consciousness. But she was a rebel firmly committed to the praxis of self-emancipation and for that alone, she should be honoured, not pissed on from a bourgeois academic's perch.
Emma was the revolutionary subject par excellence. In my opinion, she was right to favour that stance rather than the self-sacrificing stance of say, the typical Stakonvite Stalinist militant or guilt ridden 'white skin privilege radical of today. Remember, the workers will always be ready to sacrifice to the last militant. Emma embraced the passion of life in contrast with her self-sacrificing anarchist comrades ready to put their heads in a noose and die for the 'Cause'. Hooray! She didn't really embrace class wide organisation of the proletariat and thus fell into the swamp of all those with insufficient class consciousness. But she was a rebel firmly committed to the praxis of self-emancipation and for that alone, she should be honoured, not pissed on from a bourgeois academic's perch.
January 20, 2017
Vivian Gornick's engaging writing style makes reading Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life feel as if the reader is having a private conversation with the author about a controversial historical figure. V.G. doesn't allow her admiration for some aspects of E.G.'s character blind her to her subject's significant faults.
While E.G.'s willingness to use political assassination as a means to achieve her philosophical ends is completely abhorrent to me, her willingness to suffer the consequences for her actions is admirable for its rarity. The themes of authoritarianism versus anarchism and egalitarian democracy remains relevant nearly 100 years later. That's interesting and frustrating.
On page 119: "There is no greater fallacy... than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics another. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone." This passage seems especially relevant on the eve of the inauguration of the 45th PEOTUS.
This biography offers an overview of one facet of the anarchist movement from the late 19th to early 20th century, which has led me (a confirmed egalitarian capitalist) to add the William Godwin reader to my TBR list.
While E.G.'s willingness to use political assassination as a means to achieve her philosophical ends is completely abhorrent to me, her willingness to suffer the consequences for her actions is admirable for its rarity. The themes of authoritarianism versus anarchism and egalitarian democracy remains relevant nearly 100 years later. That's interesting and frustrating.
On page 119: "There is no greater fallacy... than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics another. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone." This passage seems especially relevant on the eve of the inauguration of the 45th PEOTUS.
This biography offers an overview of one facet of the anarchist movement from the late 19th to early 20th century, which has led me (a confirmed egalitarian capitalist) to add the William Godwin reader to my TBR list.
March 24, 2019
I told my brother I didn't know what to read next, because I didn't want to think about politics, and everything I read seemed to make me think about politics. "I have just the thing," he said, "I'm sending it to you now." A few days later this book arrived in my mailbox. Although I was mad, it turned out to be OK. Partly, the circumstances of reading changed; and partly, sometimes the poison and the antidote are the same thing. It is heartening to think that, at least in one case, emotion, heavy and human, was not antithetical to politics. (The insistence that man be machine in order to be either effective or virtuous politically is universal, except in Emma Goldman.) Although Gornick is highly critical, to the point of rather heavy condescension, she nevertheless centers this fact, and it was a nice, brief read.
December 21, 2023
A leftist, a friend once quipped to me, is a person who would rather win an argument than win an election.
Emma Goldman embodies this mentality to perfection. Vivian Gornick’s brief biography, emphasizing how Goldman lived her life like a work of art- a person who always had time for a speech, an article, a passionate love affair- but the idea of actually organizing, winning power and doing something never entered into the great drama of her life.
She’d probably make a great poaster today.
Anyway, this reminds me that I need to rewatch Reds soon.
Emma Goldman embodies this mentality to perfection. Vivian Gornick’s brief biography, emphasizing how Goldman lived her life like a work of art- a person who always had time for a speech, an article, a passionate love affair- but the idea of actually organizing, winning power and doing something never entered into the great drama of her life.
She’d probably make a great poaster today.
Anyway, this reminds me that I need to rewatch Reds soon.
May 10, 2018
More an emotional biography rather than a political biography, I nevertheless am glad to know more about Emma Goldman's life than I had learned from the graphic novel "A Dangerous Woman." It makes me want to read about the anarchist revolution in Spain during the Republican period.
February 8, 2015
Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life, by Vivian Gornick is not only a biography of one of the history’s most interesting political figures; it is also an excellent primer on anarchism. To most people anarchy is a political system without any government at all. In a political science course I took many years ago the first lesson I learned is that power is choice. Whoever has the most choices has the most power. Anarchism has to do with the distribution of choice and as a political system it goes far beyond the chaos that is implied on the surface. Actually anarchism is not so much the elimination of government as it is the elimination of control and coercion. It has to do with one’s ability to decide one’s own fate, one’s own course of action and one’s own destiny. In some regards anarchism goes beyond a simple political system (or non-system) and becomes a personal philosophy very much focused on a healthy passion for the inner life. Great importance is placed on human dignity and personal integrity. Anarchism calls for absolute freedom for every individual on earth, total self-determination at all times, in all places and under all circumstances.
Emma Goldman adopted permanent revolution as a way of life. As an activist, organizer and dynamic public speaker, she was often identified with Marxism, socialism and communism. In actuality she was a force in a movement to foster individual self-expression and independent thinking more so than a movement of social collectivism. Putting aside any step-by-step “system” of government, she envisioned a world of voluntary cooperation focusing on the common good. To her socialism was an evolutionary process growing from inside out. She felt that if you could change people, they would change the world. And the first person to be changed was oneself. From this book I gained a more intelligent understanding of anarchism as a political philosophy. But more than that I was impressed by the rebellious audacity and impassioned faith of a woman who dedicated her life to the ideals of living a life of the senses and of experience that honors the complete human being.
Emma Goldman adopted permanent revolution as a way of life. As an activist, organizer and dynamic public speaker, she was often identified with Marxism, socialism and communism. In actuality she was a force in a movement to foster individual self-expression and independent thinking more so than a movement of social collectivism. Putting aside any step-by-step “system” of government, she envisioned a world of voluntary cooperation focusing on the common good. To her socialism was an evolutionary process growing from inside out. She felt that if you could change people, they would change the world. And the first person to be changed was oneself. From this book I gained a more intelligent understanding of anarchism as a political philosophy. But more than that I was impressed by the rebellious audacity and impassioned faith of a woman who dedicated her life to the ideals of living a life of the senses and of experience that honors the complete human being.
October 8, 2013
She may have started out in a stetl in Russia followed by the sweatshops of The Garment District in NYC, but Emma Goldman cannot be contained or defined by any geography, building, relationship, description. Hers is not your stereotypical Horatio Alger story. She was an original who defied brutal men, mealy-mouthed women, prison guards, deportation, hypocritical Leninists: she knew a Pharisee when she saw one with her laser mind and fearless soul.
Truly an original and courageous human being, she epitomized anarchism in its true definition: being true to one's creed even if one is thrown under numerous buses and imprisoned, vilified, demonized. . . like her soulmates Socrates, Jesus, Joan of Arc and numerous contemporary straight arrows -- none of whom serve in the Senate or House of Representatives or in the other brances of our Government. Emma would have had an anarchist cow if she lived now....nobody has a belief that he or she will defend to the death. There is always another face or two to pull out and wear.
With Emma, you got what you saw and what you read. Molly Cyrus is a crack-pot, Mitch McConnell is a cracker-pot, Boener's magic mirror on the wall is just plain cracked even though it still croons that "he is the fairest of them all."
We ought to launch a Crusade, a world-wide search for someone in Emma's league. She did not have great wit; she did not have beauty or jewels. I take that back: SHE HAD JEWELS!
Truly an original and courageous human being, she epitomized anarchism in its true definition: being true to one's creed even if one is thrown under numerous buses and imprisoned, vilified, demonized. . . like her soulmates Socrates, Jesus, Joan of Arc and numerous contemporary straight arrows -- none of whom serve in the Senate or House of Representatives or in the other brances of our Government. Emma would have had an anarchist cow if she lived now....nobody has a belief that he or she will defend to the death. There is always another face or two to pull out and wear.
With Emma, you got what you saw and what you read. Molly Cyrus is a crack-pot, Mitch McConnell is a cracker-pot, Boener's magic mirror on the wall is just plain cracked even though it still croons that "he is the fairest of them all."
We ought to launch a Crusade, a world-wide search for someone in Emma's league. She did not have great wit; she did not have beauty or jewels. I take that back: SHE HAD JEWELS!
November 17, 2011
So Emma Goldman was a lot more complex than I thought. Vivian Gornick delves into her early life, her passion for anarchism and free love, her romantic loves, her love of revolutions, and her great disappointments with both. No one could say Goldman wasn't courageous: she went to jail for a year (on Blackwell Island, now Roosevelt Island) for giving a fiery, seditious speech on Union Square -- and as soon as the jail house door swung open she basically gave the same speech again to her waiting supporters and reporters. And that was not the last time she went to prison. Deported to the Soviet Union by J. Edgar Hoover, she quickly became disillusioned with the Bolsheviks, and -- after the Kronstadt Rebellion and massacre (under Trostky), she and Sasha Berkman decided to leave, even tho they had literally no where to go. I admire Gornick's mix of the personal and political (it seems to drive home the point of Emma Goldman's philosophy "the personal is political), but I found her organization of the book slightly confusing -- for the most part it is chronological, but not always. So she gets ahead of the story from time to time, and that can be irksome. On the other hand, she has done a great job of synthesizing a great deal of writing -- Goldman's and others -- and history into a short, well written, nuanced biography of a woman we ought to know about.
January 29, 2012
A well written if somewhat unconventional biography of a fascinating woman. The author interjects her own opinions and observations about Goldman's relevance to life and radical politics today as opposed to a completely linear story of Goldman's life. And that approach worked here
While the book was short, it gives a full picture of the complexity of Goldman's life. The book contrasted one dimensional anarchists and radicals whose lives were completely consumed by politics with Goldman's love of her personal life including her sexual appetite. The latter is shown by the liberal use of Goldman's sexually frank and explicit letters to lovers.
Another example of her complexity was her criticism of the Communist revolution in Russia for its repression and economic rigidity, observations that alienated her from her former political allies
The author also did an excellent time in portraying the history of Goldman's time, including the different schools of anarchist and radical thought of the time, and the differences with today's thought, without falling into a dry textbook discourse. A good read
While the book was short, it gives a full picture of the complexity of Goldman's life. The book contrasted one dimensional anarchists and radicals whose lives were completely consumed by politics with Goldman's love of her personal life including her sexual appetite. The latter is shown by the liberal use of Goldman's sexually frank and explicit letters to lovers.
Another example of her complexity was her criticism of the Communist revolution in Russia for its repression and economic rigidity, observations that alienated her from her former political allies
The author also did an excellent time in portraying the history of Goldman's time, including the different schools of anarchist and radical thought of the time, and the differences with today's thought, without falling into a dry textbook discourse. A good read
September 9, 2015
Emma Goldman is a fascinating woman. This was not a fascinating book. As a general rule I like biographies. This one failed to keep my attention. I am intrigued by how the author compared the anarchists to feminists in the 70s but didn't think she made the case. I am also reading Bitter Fruit about the American coupe in Guatemala and can see some similarities that could be compared and contrasted. I will read No Regrets about Ben Reitman as an additional source of information to support book group.
February 10, 2018
Far too general to do Goldman any justice, also insists on awkwardly comparing Goldman to later revolutionary movements such as the 60's counterculture movement. Probably there is some relation there, but the way the author goes about making this comparison is annoyingly clumsy
December 18, 2015
charming
both the author and subject come across wonderfully. I highly recommend this book- a delicious and quick read that will leave you wanting more!
both the author and subject come across wonderfully. I highly recommend this book- a delicious and quick read that will leave you wanting more!
October 5, 2025
Can there be spoilers in a historical biography?
A full accounting of the life of Emma Goldman, who Gornick depicts living her life in anticipation of the phrase "the personal is political." I picked this up a couple years ago to understand Emma Goldman and her anarchism, excited to do so through Vivian Gornick's expert writing.
One thing came across clearly, and I don't want it to be all I take from this book but maybe it is the main point after all: This biographer emphasizes the childishness of idealism. We follow Gornick through Goldman's romanticized, self-aggrandizing writing of both the principles of anarchy and her own romances—both seen through the lens of the idealized struggle. She demonstrates the naivete of Goldman and Sasha Berkman's attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick, and that extremely misguided violence is among the closest occasions Emma gets to "taking action"—otherwise speeches, rallies, but then what? Late in life, Gornick observes Sasha and Emma "seeing, with a clarity not to be denied, that anarchism as they knew it prepared one for nothing on the ground. What, after all, did an anarchist do the day after the revolution? Who knew how to organize anything—take responsibility, delegate power, end the childish quarreling endemic to anarchist meetings?"
A definition in the book's first pages gave some possible shape and structure to anarchism: "Conversationally defined as a political theory that opposes all forms of government and government restraint, anarchism advocates voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups in order that all social needs be met. ... endorsing an economic system organized around cooperative, worker-owned enterprises and a social system devoted to strict egalitarianism... If people feel free and equal, the anarchist insists, order and cooperation will emerge as a natural result." There are also discussions about the origins of the concept of mutual aid. Later in life, Emma witnesses the failure of Bolshevik communism and is ahead of her time in criticizing it, so she is for that time ostracized by the left. Then there's a brief moment of possibility in Spain, that does indeed sound like it was very idyllic, before Franco.
In a brief final chapter, Gornick puts a bow on Goldman's legacy by describing how "hers was the sensibility not of the intellectual but of the artist" at least 100 years ahead of her time, and thus a darling of the 1960-70s. "Forty years on she is more than emblematic, she is iconic." But this reader can't help being left feeling, as Gornick clearly does for the rest of the biography, that the icon (and the movement) left much to be desired in execution.
A full accounting of the life of Emma Goldman, who Gornick depicts living her life in anticipation of the phrase "the personal is political." I picked this up a couple years ago to understand Emma Goldman and her anarchism, excited to do so through Vivian Gornick's expert writing.
One thing came across clearly, and I don't want it to be all I take from this book but maybe it is the main point after all: This biographer emphasizes the childishness of idealism. We follow Gornick through Goldman's romanticized, self-aggrandizing writing of both the principles of anarchy and her own romances—both seen through the lens of the idealized struggle. She demonstrates the naivete of Goldman and Sasha Berkman's attempt on the life of Henry Clay Frick, and that extremely misguided violence is among the closest occasions Emma gets to "taking action"—otherwise speeches, rallies, but then what? Late in life, Gornick observes Sasha and Emma "seeing, with a clarity not to be denied, that anarchism as they knew it prepared one for nothing on the ground. What, after all, did an anarchist do the day after the revolution? Who knew how to organize anything—take responsibility, delegate power, end the childish quarreling endemic to anarchist meetings?"
A definition in the book's first pages gave some possible shape and structure to anarchism: "Conversationally defined as a political theory that opposes all forms of government and government restraint, anarchism advocates voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups in order that all social needs be met. ... endorsing an economic system organized around cooperative, worker-owned enterprises and a social system devoted to strict egalitarianism... If people feel free and equal, the anarchist insists, order and cooperation will emerge as a natural result." There are also discussions about the origins of the concept of mutual aid. Later in life, Emma witnesses the failure of Bolshevik communism and is ahead of her time in criticizing it, so she is for that time ostracized by the left. Then there's a brief moment of possibility in Spain, that does indeed sound like it was very idyllic, before Franco.
In a brief final chapter, Gornick puts a bow on Goldman's legacy by describing how "hers was the sensibility not of the intellectual but of the artist" at least 100 years ahead of her time, and thus a darling of the 1960-70s. "Forty years on she is more than emblematic, she is iconic." But this reader can't help being left feeling, as Gornick clearly does for the rest of the biography, that the icon (and the movement) left much to be desired in execution.
January 24, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although I was an American history major in college, Emma Goldman was always an unknown commodity to me. Yes, I had heard of her but I did not really know what she did or why she was significant. Now, having read Vivian Gornick’s splendid little book, I feel I know who Emma Goldman was, although the book does not totally explain what she did during her life. The broad outlines are there (criss-crossing the country to lecture and speak on behalf of anarchism and other causes; founding and publishing “Mother Earth” magazine; spending time in prison and being deported; rallying support for the republicans during the Spanish Civil War) but that aspect of the book seemed more “impressionistic” than comprehensive. Then again, in a book of only 143 pages, how comprehensive can the author be? Rather than provide non-stop details of Emma Goldman’s life, the book aims more to explain who she was, what made her click, what turned her on, what kept her going — and, in that, I think, the book succeeds extremely well. I came away thinking that, yes, I understand the spirit, the life force that was Emma Goldman and, for that, I am grateful to the author.
April 4, 2025
This short biography of Anarchist, Emma Goldman is fluidly written. Having been born in Russia and emigrating to America, Goldman rebelled at the inequities that were present in America at that time. Emma started off her life in America as a poor Jewish factory worker who endured dangerous working conditions imposed by her bosses and factory owners, some who started off as poor Jewish immigrant workers.
She was deported because of her political activities and lived in Russia. for a while. There she became disenchanted with the Communist society which itself had inequalities that she thought they were going to resolve. She eventually moved to and died in Canada.
Out of all of the countries she lived in; despite being deported, America was her favorite. Perhaps she thought there was some hope in the American experiment. Emma thought governments were repressive but one thing I don't think she accounted for was that sometimes people can use the force of government to improve the plight of the working class. She was a courageous woman who was never afraid to speak out despite the threats of prison and deportation.
She was deported because of her political activities and lived in Russia. for a while. There she became disenchanted with the Communist society which itself had inequalities that she thought they were going to resolve. She eventually moved to and died in Canada.
Out of all of the countries she lived in; despite being deported, America was her favorite. Perhaps she thought there was some hope in the American experiment. Emma thought governments were repressive but one thing I don't think she accounted for was that sometimes people can use the force of government to improve the plight of the working class. She was a courageous woman who was never afraid to speak out despite the threats of prison and deportation.
March 30, 2020
Dnf p.35. Written like some FOX news idea of "fair & balanced." Seriously. Facts are wrong. Ideas are wrong, or wrongly interpreted. Sentiments are presumed. Author does a whole lot of projecting onto the people described. Her condescension is palpable, & it's more than clear she thinks these people are loons. I don't understand why she chose this subject to write about. Was it an attempt to smear an entire political philosophy by passing it off as something else? No matter what her motive was, this thing was poorly done. It reads almost as if someone was assigned a report topic they could only be half-arsed about, & just really didn't give a hoot about their final grade. Even the wording is often confusing. Many times, in these few pages I managed before true disgust set in, I found myself wondering, "what the heck does that mean?" Well, as written, it didn't mean anything. It's just bad work here, & I have to recommend steering clear of it. I'm keeping the picture of Goldman, & recycling the rest of this garbage.
September 6, 2020
Vivian Gornick is the perfect writer to explain the complicated person that was Emma Goldman. It is a very timely story right now with all the protests and Antifa's participation in those events. Gornick explains the difference between anarchism of collective living and anarchism of the individual. Emma Goldman was concerned about the liberation of the individual. She was influenced by German philosophers of individualism as well as Freud's theories concerning sexual repression. Yet, she was not a feminist. The book emphasizes the press' portrayal of her which reflected the sexism of the time period such as focusing on her physical appearance or what she was wearing that day. Ironically that is not what influenced people, it was tenacity in the face of what she believed was right and her fearlessness in speaking out. She was an eloquent orator and dramatic when women were supposed to kept in their place. She was "woke" before the world knew what to do with her.
February 22, 2024
The writer Vivan Gornik’s biography of Emma Goldman was published in 2011. The book is for Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation's Jewish Lives series. Gornik feels that Goldman’s eternal topic was “the distress of living under the arbitrary rule of institutional power originated in an ingrained sense of oppression that burned as brightly” as at the beginning of her life as at the end of her life (Gornik 3). The book does explain very well, the tradition of anarchy that Goldman believes in. Gornik believes that for Goldman, the sensation of being free is more than a hard and fast ideology (Gornik 1). Her mature speeches were able to able to connect her personal life to the feelings of her audience of working people and to somehow bring their collective feelings into the philosophy of anarchy (Goldman 28). The book covers a complex relationship with the idea of women's rights (Goldman 75-80). The book also covers Goldman’s philosophy of personal sexual freedom. The book covers Goldman’s personality and lifestyle. The subtitle of Gornik’s book is “Revolution as Way of Life.” The book has four sections that cover different eras of Goldman’s life. I read the book on my Kindle. Vivan Gornik’s book is a short but well-done biography of Emma Goldman.
September 14, 2021
Throughout the centuries...
Unfairly and for no real reason...
...
Don't tell me what to do, puritanical comrade.
...
The tired workmen were electrified,
failed marriage and Chicago crime.
Life takes on an intenser quality when she
is there.
Sexual liberation and collective bargaining...
Anarchism like all great things is an Announcement!
And the moist vital right is the right to love and be loved.
...
Eugene O'Neill in a letter to anarchist Alexander "Sasha" Berkman: "As for my fame and your infame, I would be willing to exchange a good deal of mine for a bit of yours. It is not hard to write what one feels as truth. It is damned hard to live it."
...
It would remain for Stalin to figure out what to do about culture...
And after all,
it is given to but few mortals to live as you and I have lived.
It was all ashes in her mouth.
Unfairly and for no real reason...
...
Don't tell me what to do, puritanical comrade.
...
The tired workmen were electrified,
failed marriage and Chicago crime.
Life takes on an intenser quality when she
is there.
Sexual liberation and collective bargaining...
Anarchism like all great things is an Announcement!
And the moist vital right is the right to love and be loved.
...
Eugene O'Neill in a letter to anarchist Alexander "Sasha" Berkman: "As for my fame and your infame, I would be willing to exchange a good deal of mine for a bit of yours. It is not hard to write what one feels as truth. It is damned hard to live it."
...
It would remain for Stalin to figure out what to do about culture...
And after all,
it is given to but few mortals to live as you and I have lived.
It was all ashes in her mouth.
February 17, 2025
For anyone seeking to read a biography of Emma Goldman, this is not their book. Goldman’s life figures tangentially in this book as the author seeks to explore the evolution and growth of her political philosophy of anarchism and related subjects such as free love. The author also seeks to place her within the context of her period of greatest fame and influence, the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, while drawing analogies between Goldman’s advocacy and philosophy and those who espoused and advocated similar views in the 1960s and 70s (during the Vietnam War).
This approach to Goldman’s life makes for an interesting read. However, it lacks depth as it flips back and forth from references to Goldman’s life and loves to her political philosophy. It is all surfactant as nothing is explored in great depth.
The book rates 3.5 stars.
This approach to Goldman’s life makes for an interesting read. However, it lacks depth as it flips back and forth from references to Goldman’s life and loves to her political philosophy. It is all surfactant as nothing is explored in great depth.
The book rates 3.5 stars.
November 24, 2020
"On her seventieth birthday, an admirer told Emma Goldman, 'It was not what you did or said that helped me, but what you were, the mere fact of the existence of your spirit which never gives in and fights on no matter how thick is the darkness in the world and in our own little worlds."
"She was an incarnation. It was not her gift for theory or analysis or even strategy that made her memorable; it was the extraordinary force of life in her that burned, without rest or respite, on behalf of human integrity."
"She knew instinctively that to follow the depth of emotion that social injustice induced in her was to engage with her most responsive self."
"If I can't dance, I'm not coming to your revolution."
"She was an incarnation. It was not her gift for theory or analysis or even strategy that made her memorable; it was the extraordinary force of life in her that burned, without rest or respite, on behalf of human integrity."
"She knew instinctively that to follow the depth of emotion that social injustice induced in her was to engage with her most responsive self."
"If I can't dance, I'm not coming to your revolution."
May 21, 2025
Karya Gornick adalah interpretasi fenomenologis atas eksistensi Goldman. Alih-alih terjebak dalam kronologi, Gornick memilih mendekati Emma sebagai subjek hidup. Tentang kehidupan seseorang yang terus menerus memberontak terhadap batas yang dipaksakan oleh negara, moralitas patriarkal, bahkan oleh gerakan revolusi itu sendiri. Bahasa Gornick puitis, penuh pengamatan tajam, dan tak jarang bernuansa eksistensial. Ia tidak menyanjung Emma secara membabi buta. Ia justru menunjukkan paradoks Emma sebagai perempuan yang bisa sangat keras kepala, tapi juga lembut dalam pandangan tentang cinta dan perjuangan.
December 14, 2021
Emma Goldman died in Toronto in 1940 and I was curious to read more about her time in Canada. This short biography, however, is focused closely on her personality and does not provide a lot of historical context concerning the places where she lived or the historical events that took place at the time. There are some vivid chapters, including the conditions that faced in prison in Missouri during the First World War, but overall, the book does not go into a lot of depth about Goldman's homes and the times she lived in.
Read
March 4, 2023A concise but stimulating portrait of a contradictory anarchist firebrand. I liked Gornick's tone and style, it was strangely informal sometimes but I think it worked. Funny how a slim book - 140 pages - can contain this centrifugal force - after finishing it, you can't wait to know more about Catalonia in 1936-1939, Pyotr Kropotkin, the Haymarket affair, Sasha Berkman, anarchism, the fight for labour rights and the crazy repressive laws that the US instated in WWI. Knowing myself, books on these topics will gather dust on my digital to-read shelves after neatly filing them there. Oh well.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews