International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Emma Goldman, an anarcho-feminist intellectual, activist, writer, organizer, and public speaker, is arguably the most famous, or perhaps infamous, anarchist in the history of North America. She spent a lifetime agitating for universal principles such as: an end to war, nationalism, authoritarianism, imperialism, and gender inequalities; social justice for all working people; reproductive freedom; the abolition of capitalism; and freedom of spiritual, political, intellectual, and sexual expression – including polyamory or free love. Admirers called her “Rebel Woman” and “the modern Joan of Arc,” while the press and her enemies mockingly named her “Red Emma,” “High Priestess of Anarchy,” or the “Anarchist Queen”; her resistance was so formidable to authorities that she was described by J. Edgar Hoover as “the most dangerous woman in the world.” From approximately the age of 20, Goldman dedicated her life to an unrelenting campaign of political agitation for social revolution, becoming a pivotal figure in the history of political philosophy. She faced lifelong criminalization, expulsion, public humiliation, and social scorn as a result of her controversial convictions and activities. Goldman was born in a Jewish Orthodox family to Taube Bienowitch and Abraham Goldman on June 27, 1869 in Kaunas, Russia (now Kovno, Lithuania), the youngest of three daughters. She endured a harsh childhood, ... log in or subscribe to read full text