Anarchism and Other Essays

About the book

Emma Goldman explains her understanding of anarchism and applies it to prisons, patriotism, education, sexual morality, marriage, women's emancipation, and the political force of drama. The essays argue that coercion can operate through respectable conventions as well as through explicit state authority. Their direct and often combative style reflects an effort to persuade readers already surrounded by hostile accounts of radical thought. Goldman also questions reforms that appear progressive when she believes they leave deeper dependencies intact. The collection includes a biographical sketch by Hippolyte Havel, placing the arguments beside an account of her public life. Read as a connected set, the essays show a conception of freedom concerned with work, intimate relations, and intellectual possibility, while leaving readers room to test the claims and tensions of that conception.

• Freedom and authority
• Social reform
• Gender and independence

Why read it

For a direct introduction to Goldman's arguments through concrete disputes about education, punishment, marriage, and political loyalty.

Essay collection with biographical sketch · English text