“What this remarkable book does . . . is to remind us of that passion, that revolutionary fervor, that camaraderie, that persistence in the face of political defeat and personal despair so needed in our time as in theirs.” —Howard Zinn “Fascinating ...With marvelous clarity and depth, Candace Falk illuminates for us an Emma Goldman shaped by her time yet presaging in her life the situation and conflicts of women in our time.” —Tillie Olsen One of the most famous political activists of all time, Emma Goldman was also infamous for her radical anarchist views and her “scandalous” personal life. In public, Goldman was a firebrand, confidently agitating for labor reform, anarchism, birth control, and women’s independence. But behind closed doors she was more vulnerable, especially when it came to the love of her life. Love, Anarchy, & Emma Goldman is an account of Goldman’s legendary career as a political activist. But it is more than that—it is a biography that offers an intimate look at how Goldman’s passion for social reform dovetailed with her passion for one man: Chicago activist, hobo king, and red-light district gynecologist Ben Reitman. Candace Falk takes us into the heart of their tumultuous love affair, finding that even as Goldman lectured on free love, she confronted her own intense jealousy. As director of the Emma Goldman papers, Falk had access to over 40,000 writings by Goldman—including her private letters and notes—and she draws upon these archives to give us a rare insight into this brilliant, complex woman’s thoughts. The result is both a riveting love story and a primer on an exciting, explosive era in American politics and intellectual life.

Historian Howard Zinn brings to life the American feminist and anarchist leader Emma Goldman.

“Intimate, thoughtful, and accessible to anyone struggling with the persistent, maddening inequities of contemporary sex.” –Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad From Teen Vogue sex and love columnist Nona Willis Aronowitz, a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism that probes the meaning of desire and sexual freedom today. At thirty-two years old, everything in Nona Willis Aronowitz’s life, and in America, was in disarray. Her marriage was falling apart. Her nuclear family was slipping away. Her heart and libido were both in overdrive. Embroiled in an era of fear, reckoning, and reimagining, her assumptions of what “sexual liberation” meant were suddenly up for debate. In the thick of personal and political turmoil, Nona turned to the words of history’s sexual revolutionaries—including her late mother, early radical pro-sex feminist Ellen Willis. At a time when sex has never been more accepted and feminism has never been more mainstream, Nona asked herself: What, exactly, do I want? And are my sexual and romantic desires even possible amid the horrors and bribes of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy? Nona’s attempt to find the answer places her search for authentic intimacy alongside her family history and other stories stretching back nearly two hundred years. Stories of ambivalent wives and unchill sluts, free lovers and radical lesbians, sensitive men and woke misogynists, women who risk everything for sex—who buy sex, reject sex, have bad sex and good sex. The result is a brave, bold, and vulnerable exploration of what sexual freedom can mean. Bad Sex is Nona’s own journey to sexual satisfaction and romantic happiness, which not only lays bare the triumphs and flaws of contemporary feminism but also shines a light on universal questions of desire.

Martha Solomon's Emma Goldman is the first detailed study of Goldman to focus on her achievement as a rhetorician--both speaker and writer--rather than on her involvement in particular causes. Soloman examines the whole Goldman canon, including her essays on a wide range of topics and her role as editor and publisher of Mother Earth, to analyze both her literary theory and her rhetorical strategies.

"This book focuses on the ideas of Emma Goldman as they relate to the centrality of sexuality and reproduction, and as such, are relevant to the current feminist debates."--BOOK JACKET.

Emma Goldman, or "Red Emma," is known today for her fiery support of anarchism and the militant labor movements of early twentieth-century America and for her radical views on women and sexuality. Born in Lithuania in 1869, she emigrated to the United States, where she defended both free speech and free love, the rights of striking workers and the rights of homosexuals. Alice Wexler brings the torments and triumphs of Emma's twenty years in exile. Deported to Russia form the United States in 1919 with her former lover and friend, Alexander Berkman, Goldman found herself in the midst of a civil war at odds with her vision of a revolutionary society. This dramatic account illuminates Goldman's struggles as an archetypal outsider -- Jew, exile, anarchist, and woman -- while shedding light on a world sharply polarized between revolution and reaction. -- From publisher's description.

Essays about Goldman's thinking, from social, historical and philosophical perspectives.

One of the most colorful, controversial and radical figures in American history, Emma Goldman challenged the legitimacy of religion, government, and private property in the United States. Imprisoned, tried, and later deported for her beliefs, the Goldman story is a window through which students will see a better picture of the history of American radicalism, the history of civil liberties in America, and the history of American foreign policy. The titles in the Library of American Biography Series make ideal supplements for American History Survey courses or other courses in American history where figures in history are explored. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each interpretive biography in this series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. In addition, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.

A biography of the political activist who was imprisoned and deported for advocating such causes as anarchism, birth control, women's rights, and for opposing the draft during World War I.