Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life

Vivian Gornick is the perfect writer to explain the complicated person that was Emma Goldman. It is a very timely story right now with all the protests and Antifa's participation in those events. Gornick explains the difference between anarchism of collective living and anarchism of the individual. Emma Goldman was concerned about the liberation of the individual. She was influenced by German philosophers of individualism as well as Freud's theories concerning sexual repression. Yet, she was not a feminist. The book emphasizes the press' portrayal of her which reflected the sexism of the time period such as focusing on her physical appearance or what she was wearing that day. Ironically that is not what influenced people, it was show more tenacity in the face of what she believed was right and her fearlessness in speaking out. She was an eloquent orator and dramatic when women were supposed to kept in their place. She was "woke" before the world knew what to do with her. show less

This brief discussion of Goldman and her time does not exactly qualify as a biography. Reading Wikipedia to gain more knowledge of Emma Goldman helps to add needed background. In addition, Vivian Gornick praises Goldman's "extraordinary force of life" rather than Goldman's skills as a speaker or as an interpreter of ideas. I feel that such praise is somewhat insulting. Would Gornick praise a man for his burning spiritual forcefulness? Overall, the biography focuses more on Gornick's ambivalent feelings toward her subject -- or perhaps her disdain for her subject -- than on a description of Goldman's accomplishments or her life history.

I just don't think I'm ever going to finish this. There may be another biography of Emma that interests me. But, this is a textbook and dry as dust. Even the woman who said that any revolution that didn't include dancing isn't for her is dull in this brick.

like the other reviewer. i don't think gornick liked goldman. i really enjoyed her autobiography and loved her joy of life. she did seem to capture gold man's distress in later life when no one was interested in anarchy.

Read for my, The American Radical Tradition, course

I just don't think I'm ever going to finish this. There may be another biography of Emma that interests me. But, this is a textbook and dry as dust. Even the woman who said that any revolution that didn't include dancing isn't for her is dull in this brick.