Showing results by author "Emma Goldman" in All Categories

Emma Goldman outlines her beliefs on property, the church, love and marriage, and violence. She states that students of the history of progressive thought are well aware that every idea in its early stages has been misrepresented and that the adherents of such ideas have been maligned and persecuted. In conclusion, Goldman claims that only anarchism makes nonauthoritarian organization a reality, since it abolishes the existing antagonism between individuals and classes.

Emma Goldman was a political advocate for absolute freedom for the individual. A New Declaration of Independence was published in 1909 in the journal, Mother Earth, and encouraged all persons regardless of race, background, or ethnicity to stand up for themselves and eliminate society’s inequalities.

This 1910 collection of essays outlines Emma Goldman's anarchist views on various topics, most notably the oppression of women and perceived shortcomings of first-wave feminism. It also includes her views on prisons, political violence, sexuality, religion, nationalism, and art theory. Anarchism and Other Essays provides a fascinating look into revolutionary issues at the turn of the century, offering a prophetic view of the social and economic future.

Emma Goldman was a passionate critic of the prison system, criticizing both the treatment of prisoners and the social causes of crime. She considered crime as a natural outgrowth of an unjust economic system, and in her essay "Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure" (1911), she quoted liberally from the authors Fyodor Dostoevsky and Oscar Wilde on the subject.

In this essay, Emma Goldman expresses her opposition to women’s suffrage, as she was opposed to all forms of government. She disagreed with the argument of many suffragists that women's participation would clean up a corrupt political system. Women's suffrage, Goldman believed, would at best be irrelevant and at worst, it would divert attention from more important issues.

Emma Goldman harshly criticizes Puritanism and its reign of terror in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. She claims that it hurt writers like Oscar Wilde and Shelley, and alienated Byron from his native land. She calls Puritanism a censor of the artistic expression of people, facilitating only the dullness of respectability.

"Jeudi dernier, c’est la journée la plus horrible de ma vie, le jour des plus grandes humiliations. J’ai vu que ce que tu appelles “amour” n’était qu’un caprice à satisfaire quel qu’en soit le prix. J’ai aussi vu qu’à moins de me soumettre à ce caprice je n’avais pas de place ni dans ta vie, ni dans ton humanité, ni dans ton estime. La question n’est pas de savoir si je t’aime assez pour supporter tes états d’âme ou si je le souhaite, je sais que je ne veux plus jamais subir ce que j’ai vécu jeudi dernier. Jamais."

An essay included in Emma Goldman’s 1910 collection Anarchism and Other Essays. This essay argues that the modern drama (live plays in theatres) can spread radical thought and disseminate new values. Each performance operates through the double channel of dramatist and interpreter. Affecting as it does both mind and heart, it is the strongest force in developing social discontent.

In this essay, Emma Goldman praises creative individualism against the power of the masses.