Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America

by Deborah Heiligman

A propulsive biography about groundbreaking political activist Emma Goldman from National Book Award Finalist and “nonfiction maestro” (Horn Book) Deborah Heiligman.

Emma Goldman made trouble her whole life. The first time was by accident. Her birth (in Lithuania, in 1869) angered her father. He had wanted a dutiful son, not a headstrong daughter. The other times were on purpose.

When she arrived in America as a young woman, she loved its democratic ideals but was appalled by its hypocrisy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seemed to be only for those at the top. Something had to be done for everyone else. Someone had to speak up. Soon Emma was delivering rousing speeches on topics like workers’ rights, feminism, and the atrocities of capitalism.

This is the story of Emma’s complex love affair with America. It’s also the story of her many romances with the men she met while trying to change America. Emma believed marriage was disempowering to women and lived her life according to the principles of free love.

Emma called herself an anarchist and a freethinker. Her critics called her a troublemaker, a “loudmouth.” But sometimes you need to be loud, if you want your voice to be heard.

Deborah Heiligman is a National Book Award finalist, a YALSA Nonfiction Award winner, and a Printz Honor winner. In Loudmouth she tells the extraordinary true story of a woman who was a fearsome fighter for change in her complicated new country—and a complicated human being in her own right.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Historical

336 pages, Hardcover

Published September 16, 2025

About the author

Deborah Heiligman has been writing for children since she worked at Scholastic News soon after college. Since then she has written more than thirty books for children and teens. Her books include picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, and young adult nonfiction and fiction. Some titles: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, a National Book Award finalist; The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a Cook Prize Winner and Orbis Pictus honor; Intentions, a Sydney Taylor Award winner, and a picture book series about Tinka the dog. Her latest book is Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers. For more information please visit www.DeborahHeiligman.com

Reviews

[Leah Fidler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a historical biography. This was super intriguing as I was unfamiliar with this person before reading this book. Emma Goldman is a fascinating person to learn more about. Especially as she lived in a time that women had limited rights and experiences, she truly pioneered in an area of workers rights that truly helped shape the future of work conditions and the labor movement. The book was very detailed and informative. At times, the stories seemed long winded and I found myself wanting the book to end sooner and wrap up the influence and life impact.

[Courtney Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emma Goldman's story and her activism is alarmingly relevant to today's political climate and as someone who's never been considered a "quiet woman," in any sense, hit very close to to home for me.
"Remember that those who fought and bled for your liberties were in their time considered as being against the law, as dangerous disturbers and trouble-makers. They not only preached violence, but they carried out their ideas by throwing tea into the Boston harbor. They said that "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God." They wrote a dangerous document called the Declaration of Independence. A document which continues to be dangerous to this day, and for the circulation of which a young man was sentenced to ninety days prison in a New York Court, only the other day.
They were the Anarchists of their time--they were never within the law. Your Government is allied with the French Republic. Need I call your attention to the historic fact that the great upheaval in France was brought about by extra-legal means?" -Emma Goldman, 1917

[Amie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. all opinions in this review are my own.

I only became aware of Emma Goldman and her place in American history (and world history) in recent years. I don’t recall ever reading about her in school.

This book is certainly written for a YA audience. I think it does a fair job portraying Emma as a complex and passionate person. She was a self identified anarchist and while opposed to violence, she was blamed by President McKinley’s assassin as inspiring his violent crime.

"As an anarchist, I am opposed to violence. But if the people want to do away with assassins, they must do away with the conditions which produce murderers."

While she has probably always been considered “radical”, and even more radical for her time in the late 1800s and early 1900s, she was a champion of so many things long taken for granted in the United States: access to birth control, free speech and freedom of/from religion, women’s rights, and worker’s rights among other causes.

I would recommend this audio for anyone curious about a lesser know historical figure who led a fascinating life.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1885 sixteen-year-old Emma Goldman immigrated to the United States. By her early twenties she was at the heart of her new country’s political protests, an anarchic activist urging workers demand their rights and take what they needed. For the next thirty plus years Goldman made headlines, wrote articles, roused crowds, and bounced in and out of jail until J. Edgar Hoover, and the newly written Naturalization Act, deported her in 1919. This superbly researched biography showcases Emma’s indomitable zeal and refusal to compromise, backing social-justice causes from fair pay, to legalizing birth control, to anti-war demonstrations. Heiligman’s surprising and exhaustive account makes clear Goldman deserves a place in the pantheon of American political activism. Word choice sometimes excuses questionable behavior; attentat in place of assassinate, Emma doesn't choose, she is compelled. Yet this eye-opening glimpse into the political and sexual passions of a seminal rebel reveals a fascinating figure, and a chilling period of American political persecution. Contains content warning, notes, bibliography, further reading, index and photographs.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldman's name is going to be one that most people don't know much about and if the intended audience is teens, even more so, as I'm an adult who didn't know anything about her and her loudmouth, troublemaking ways. Heiligman realizes that she was and would still be considered a polarizing figure and went hard into research to share Goldman's life story from being a disappointment to her parents in Lithuania (though it was part of the Russian Empire) for being a girl to spitting fire at rallies about causes important to her after moving to America and seeing injustice.

Heiligman does not sugarcoat Goldman's life from romances and friendships to incarceration and labor though it does at times dive deep enough to get lost among the many life experiences and feels lengthy. The cover is sure to garner attention as is her general story.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that saying "they were a product of their time" which is used to excuse the abhorrent ideas and beliefs of people in the past? The more I read about historical figures and events, the more I realize how ridiculous it is. Emma Goldman is one such person. She had widely progressive ideas, even by today's standards. And she was living at the turn of the century.

Goldman was a self-described anarchist. But that term has definitely been twisted. Her main belief was that people do not need government and that life would be better if we all worked together to support each other. It was a utopian idea that ultimately got her jailed multiple times and then deported.

Heiligman's account of Goldman's life and beliefs was endlessly engaging and widely entertaining. She has a gift for

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very interesting read, though repetitive in places. I would have liked to know more about Emma Goldman's feelings and more details on her health. Also, I wasn't quite sure about the target audience for this book. It could have been briefer for a young adult reader and meatier for an adult reader. However, it certainly fascinated me and provided good background for this period in history. It made me want to read more and obviously that makes it a success in my book. Also, very good choice for a title!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope many teens choose to read it.

[Ashley Prunier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some topics discussed in Loudmouth:
- Censorship
- Working conditions and worker's rights
- Immigration
- Does violence beget violence?
- Capitalism
- Where does social evil come from? How can we correct it (education, religion, etc)?
- Media and how the news can influence perceptions of political figures
- Plus many more!

I enjoyed reading this book because of these topics and how much they overlap with current issues in America. I also liked learning about Emma Goldman's interesting life. For lack of a better description, she was bold af and had some really unconventional ideas for the time period and as a woman.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing an ARC of this book.

This was an interesting biography for me, as I was not familiar with Emma Goldman. Emma lived in a time where women had very limited rights, and she worked to help shape the future work conditions and labor movements. This book was detailed, maybe a little too much, as some portions felt a little long winded. But overall an interesting biography.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Libriar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew nothing about Emma Goldman before listening to this audiobook. I am a fan of Heiligman's other books and how she takes a complicated subject and makes it accessible for teen readers. She does that once again with this book, but I am not sure of the appeal of Goldman to teen readers. I also don't think I needed to know this much about Goldman - a good, long article probably would have worked for me.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deb Heiligman’s writing about history is always to be read and this is no exception. As someone who knew little about Emma Goldman or the anarchist movement in the United States, I was fascinated by “EG.” Her drive, her determination, and her compassion were impressive and illustrated perfectly here. As Deb said in the Acknowledgements and I have been lucky to meet and hear her speak about her writing process, it is clear she loved “spending more than four years with her (EG).

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emotional and informative biography of a historical figure I knew very little about. Emma Goldman is fascinating and her battles with the US Government are particularly poignant right now. Her strong ideals and her determination are something to which readers can aspire. The author includes quite a bit of Goldman's tumultuous personal life, which humanizes her and highlights how the people she knew and loved affected her ideas.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super informative! I didn't know anything about Emma Goldman before reading this, but she was a fascinating person who had a lot of influence on women's and workers rights in the US. I think the book overall was a little longer than it needed to be, and I don't think it will have a wide appeal to teens necessarily, but still an interesting book overall.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't quite put my finger on why this didn't work for me, but it just wasn't quite right. I didn't really know anything about Emma Goldman before reading this, and I'm not sure how much about her I'm going to retain. I think I just needed to know more about her as a person than just the info dump about the things she did. The book itself was fine, but it just didn't click for me.

[Sarah Ressler Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting nonfiction and good audio. Clearly well researched. Fascinated with her speaking out and also many lovers -lots of references to her love of men and radical free love beliefs at the turn of the century. Appreciated her work on abortion. Not sure that anarchy is the best way but nothing else seems to be working well either…

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read on the life of Emma Goldman. And while I disagree with the violence aspect within anarchy, I am in awe of her tireless efforts to QUESTION EVERYTHING, changing the way we see and understand unions, marriage equality, birth control, and more. We all have a voice- some just use theirs better than others to fight for something meaningful.

[RachelAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderfully engaging biography of an extraordinary woman! Emma Goldman was a force of nature, and that sense of motion carries into the biography. I think young historians will be fascinated by her life and ideas, which still feel daring and fresh.

[BiblioBrandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover design and apparent thorough research earn an A+. However, at 328 pages, it's quite long even for someone genuinely interested in Emma Goldman. I think it might be a tough sell for teenagers, who are the target audience.

[maven · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was aimed at a YA/teen audience, because there's nothing mentioned on the cover and it was shelved with adult nonfiction at the library. It reads like it was written for a much younger audience, like talking down to little children.

[Shira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emma Goldman was such a fascinating person. Deborah Heiligman did a great job in displaying the complexities of this woman.

[Leonard Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred Heiligman’s Clara Lemlich book. Loudmouth is sort of similar but longer. I am not sure what it adds. Some of this is just me: I’ve been sort of down on biography as a genre lately

[Katy Wineke · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Emma Goldman was an incredible woman—for her time and any time—but I didn’t love the book.

[Sarah Allwarden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great biography for teen readers and someone looking for a simple overview of Emma Goldman’s life.