Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Lithuanian-born anarchist known for her writings and speeches. She was lionized as an iconic "rebel woman" feminist, and derided as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution by her critics.

Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in the United States and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. In particular she incorporated gender politics into anarchism which, if at all, had only been hinted at by earlier anarchists. She emigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen and was later deported to Russia, where she witnessed the results of the Russian Revolution. She spent a number of years in England and in Southern France where she wrote her autobiography, Living My Life, and other works, before taking part in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 as the English language representative in London of the CNT-FAI. She notoriously dated both Ben Reitman (Sisters of the Road) and Alexander Berkman (Life of an Anarchist).

"Crowded together in the inner city, poor people could communicate, organize, and create resistance. Their solution was to break up the mass of people and push them out of the city."

View All 5 Comments

View All 16 Comments