Living My Life, Vol. 1

published	June 1st 1970 by Dover Publications
binding	Paperback
isbn	0486225437 (isbn13: 9780486225432)
ebook
pages	510
description	Forget all those New Left memoirs: for readers who want to know what it is to be a revolutionary in America, this is the book to read. At the turn of ...more [close] Forget all those New Left memoirs: for readers who want to know what it is to be a revolutionary in America, this is the book to read. At the turn of the 20th century, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was probably the most hated woman in her adopted country. (She emigrated from Russia at age 17.) It was bad enough that she was an anarchist, accused of complicity in the 1901 assassination of President McKinley. But her vehement espousal of women's rights--including birth control--really enraged upright citizens. Goldman's marvelously militant autobiography gives ample evidence of her gift for bearing a grudge and inability to mince words--she decries fellow leftists at least as often as the bourgeoisie, especially after she is deported to the Soviet Union in 1919 and discovers that the Bolshevik Revolution is not what she hoped for. But Goldman's blazing honesty and unflinching commitment to unpopular causes make her a larger-than-life heroine. She does display the occasional human weakness, including a lengthy romance with a man whose infidelities torment this advocate of free love, but they're less interesting than her heroic challenge to America to live up to its ideals. Whether or not she was literally a bomb thrower remains a matter of debate. For posterity, her words are incendiary enough. --Wendy Smith [close]
date added	05-30-07 edit book

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Chilly rated it:

(review of isbn 0142437859)

07/21/07

There’s a horrible tendency to believe American rebellion started in the late 40’s/early 50’s with the Beats, psychic reaction to the horrors of the A bomb, the flowering of a socio-economic class called “teenager” and it’s beloved rock and roll. People wrote poems at Walden pond, hobos hopped freight trains and there has always been a party in Chinatown, but somehow it doesn’t get credit for being as sexy as Elvis to modern minds. Obviously American rebellion goes back much furthe...more There’s a horrible tendency to believe American rebellion started in the late 40’s/early 50’s with the Beats, psychic reaction to the horrors of the A bomb, the flowering of a socio-economic class called “teenager” and it’s beloved rock and roll. People wrote poems at Walden pond, hobos hopped freight trains and there has always been a party in Chinatown, but somehow it doesn’t get credit for being as sexy as Elvis to modern minds. Obviously American rebellion goes back much further than this, and if we are less in touch with those angry times that came before, our horrid attention spans and lack of historical presence must be blamed. Emma Goldman lived over a span that could be described as the golden age of American (and European) anarchism, and had to have been, as she was very much at the center of that times creation. A young immigrant woman, sickened and inspired by the hangings that followed the Haymarket Riots of 1886, Goldman devoted her life to philisophical Anarchism: a challenge to the institutions which mankind allows to limit it’s very humianity, be they “church”, “law”, “work”, or “love”. Her autobiography is a document to what the immigrant experience was like, what working conditions were at the turn of the century, the role of women in our culture then; and is filled with examples of what “control” will fear and how it will react. Though she never fired a bullet or threw a bomb, she was harassed throughout her carear by authorities and the press. After president McKinley was assasinated by an “Anarchist”, ludicrous laws swept the nation forbiding legal assembly and attempted to suppress their rights of suspect non-WASP indiviuals to express their views. Sound familiar? Emma was considered extemely dangerous, and she was, in the sense that she would not stray from her principles, though there were times when pragmatism overrode dogma. And the horrific questions she wanted answered: can’t we be more “free” than this? can’t we be more human? This first volume follows her through struggles as a seamstress and a nurse, orator and independant publisher, convict, lover of the unloved. It traces her relationships with other Anarchist of the era, both well known and otherwise. It follows her on speaking tours through a younger America and Europe. If it is at times a little tedious in it’s self-examination and passion, this can only be attributed to a quest for absolute honesty. It is long but thorough, with great titles at the top of every page like “I remarry Kershner and leave him again” or “I shock the pilgrim fathers”. It is an inspiring and fascinating read that requires a commitment that will be rewarded. People fought long and hard for an eight hour work day in this country, the idea of which somehow began to vanish in the eighties. There was a time when technology granted a certain aninimity to individuals, even though every effort was being made to suppress and find them. There was a time when “freedom” meant more than a series of economic choices, and humanity was not so tied to income. This is a new century, and a new struggle. We can take clues from the vision of those who came before....less

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Living My Life, Vol. 1

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