A magnificent work that offers at once proof of the late Paul Avrich's keen scholarship and the lasting drama that is the life of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. -- Paul Buhle, coeditor of Encyclopedia of the American Left With a wealth of detail, the richness of Paul Avrich's intimate knowledge of anarchism, and his personal acquaintance with many anarchists, this book brings Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman to vivid life, in all their heroism and human frailty. -- Alice Wexler, author of Emma Goldman in America and Emma Goldman in Exile The story of Sasha and Emma-staunch comrades, intimate friends, intermittent lovers, consistent confidantes, co-conspirators driven by a passion for social justice and absolute freedom-is gripping and engaging. It's a rare narrative of the political underworld of anarchist militants for whom bonds of personal love and devotion are a matter of life and death. -- Candace Falk, author of Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman, and director, The Emma Goldman Papers
Paul Avrich was Professor of Russian History and Anarchism at Queens College, City University of New York. Karen Avrich is a writer and editor in New York.
America's most notorious anarchists turn out to be appealing characters, according to Avrich, the late Queens College professor of history, and his daughter. Jewish immigrants from czarist Russia, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and Alexander Berkman (1870-1936) met in 1889, already fierce advocates of a utopian society without government. Berkman entered the history books in 1892 when he attempted to assassinate Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick. After 14 miserable years in prison, he rejoined Emma on the revolutionary front lines. Their campaigns consisted almost entirely of writing, speeches, and demonstrations, which resulted in relentless police harassment, beatings, and arrests. Deported to Russia in 1919, they fared no better under communism, ending their lives agitating across Europe and Canada. The authors portray Berkman sympathetically, but his ascetic, militant idealism was perhaps too radical for the public to which he was so devoted. Readers will likely gravitate toward the charismatic Goldman, who even as a young woman thrilled crowds, enjoyed life and the arts, and fell in love frequently and passionately. She remained a committed anarchist to her death, holding forth on issues-from women's equality to acceptance of homosexuality-well in advance of her time. This fine, definitive dual biography does justice to these radicals who fought lifelong for their ideals. Publishers Weekly 20120622 Paul Avrich, the preeminent historian of American anarchism, was working at the time of his death in 2006 on a biography of anarchist Alexander ("Sasha") Berkman. One of his daughters, writer Karen Avrich, completed this final work. The book traces the lives of onetime lovers and lifelong friends and comrades Berkman and Emma Goldman. While Goldman's life has been well documented, Berkman, who had an equally large impact on American and European anarchist history, has until now been treated as little more than a historical footnote, as the anarchist who attempted to assassinate the industrialist and financier Henry Clay Frick. This book corrects that, showing the close interconnectedness of the lives of Berkman and Goldman and their impact on 20th-century anarchism...A sweeping narrative...It is an important contribution in its restoration of Berkman's place in anarchist history. Highly recommended. -- Jessica Moran Library Journal (starred review) 20120801 Emma Goldman would forever remember the November night in 1889 when she first met fellow anarchist Alexander "Sasha" Berkman: "Deep love for him welled up in my heart," she later wrote, "a feeling of certainty that our lives were linked for all time." Thanks to the extensive research of historian Avrich, completed by his daughter, Karen, readers feel the shared passions--for equality, for justice, for freedom--that forged the bond between these two firebrands, political passions that burned bright long after the cooling of the romantic passions that briefly united them as lovers. Readers will marvel at the indefatigable labors of this pair--speaking, writing, organizing--kindling new hopes for a society free from oppression and want. Still, the honest narrative exposes the dark underside of anarchist hopes, an underside evident in Berkman's failed attempt to kill tycoon Henry Clay Frick and anarchist Leon Czolgosz's assassination of President McKinley, an act inspired by Goldman's incendiary rhetoric. A narrative laced with irony details the remarkable reorientation of this pair after they were deported to a Soviet Russia they had lauded as a utopia but soon fled as a monstrous dystopia. A fully human portrait of two tightly linked yet forever fiercely independent spirits. -- Bryce Christensen Booklist (starred review) 20121001
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