Anarchism and Other Essays

The Voice of American Anarchism

Emma Goldman published this collection in 1910, at the height of her notoriety. She had already been imprisoned for inciting a riot, deported from lecture halls across the country, and linked (unfairly, as it turned out) to the assassination of President McKinley. These twelve essays are the written version of the speeches that got her arrested.

What the Book Covers

The title essay is a compact defense of anarchism as a philosophy, not a synonym for chaos. Goldman distinguishes her position from both Marxist collectivism and liberal reformism, arguing that the state itself is the problem, not merely who controls it. The remaining essays take on specific targets: the prison system as a machine for producing criminals, patriotism as the refuge of scoundrels, marriage as legalized domination, and the hypocrisy of anti-vice crusades that ignore the economic causes of prostitution.

Goldman writes with the cadence of a speaker who has been heckled and knows how to hit back. The prose is direct, angry, and often funny. She is not constructing a philosophical system. She is prosecuting a case, and she assumes the jury is hostile.

Why It Still Matters

The essays on prisons, censorship, and the relationship between political violence and state violence remain relevant reading regardless of where you stand on Goldman's conclusions. Her analysis of how reform movements get co-opted by the institutions they claim to oppose has proven more durable than most of the reforms she criticized.

About This Edition

Author: Emma Goldman
Publisher: Dover Publications
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780486224848