Book Review: Emma Goldman, ‘Mother Earth’ and the Anarchist Awakening
From Freedom News UK
It is hard not to feel some sympathy for Emma Goldman after her treatment at the hands of some historians and writers. All too often they have filleted her ideas to “prove” their pre-conceived thesis or simply failed to acknowledge the complexity of the “Light and Shadows” in her life that Candace Falk writes about in Volume Three of the Emma Goldman Papers.(“Light and Shadows, 1910-1916”. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012) There is however some evidence that this situation is gradually being remedied beyond the work of The Emma Goldman Papers. Kathy Ferguson’s “Emma Goldman: Political Thinking In The Streets” (London: Rowan and Littlefield, 2011) accepts the underlying principles of the anarchism that drove Goldman and her comrades and discusses how Goldman attempted to make these ideas and principles a reality. Now this important and essential volume by Rachel Hsu goes back to the primary sources in an attempt to allow the ideas and actions of Goldman to speak for themselves. It is a timely reminder that Goldman is her own person with all that entails and not just an inspiring quote on facebook, usually taken out of context.