Sasha and Emma : the anarchist odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman / Paul Avrich and Karen Avrich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Avrich, Paul.

Contributor:

Avrich, Karen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Berkman, Alexander, 1870-1936.

Berkman, Alexander.

Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940.

Goldman, Emma.

Anarchists--United States--Biography.

Anarchists.

Anarchism--United States--History.

Anarchism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 490 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates ) illustrations (black and white)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1889 two Russian immigrants, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, met in a coffee shop on the Lower East Side. Over the next fifty years Emma and Sasha would be fast friends, fleeting lovers, and loyal comrades. This dual biography offers an unprecedented glimpse into their intertwined lives, the lasting influence of the anarchist movement they shaped, and their unyielding commitment to equality and justice. Berkman shocked the country in 1892 with "the first terrorist act in America," the failed assassination of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick for his crimes against workers. Passionate and pitiless, gloomy yet gentle, Berkman remained Goldman's closest confidant though the two were often separated-by his fourteen-year imprisonment and by Emma's growing fame as the champion of a multitude of causes, from sexual liberation to freedom of speech. The blazing sun to Sasha's morose moon, Emma became known as "the most dangerous woman in America." Through an attempted prison breakout, multiple bombing plots, and a dramatic deportation from America, these two unrelenting activists insisted on the improbable ideal of a socially just, self-governing utopia, a vision that has shaped movements across the past century, most recently Occupy Wall Street. Sasha and Emma is the culminating work of acclaimed historian of anarchism Paul Avrich. Before his death, Avrich asked his daughter to complete his magnum opus. The resulting collaboration, epic in scope, intimate in detail, examines the possibilities and perils of political faith and protest, through a pair who both terrified and dazzled the world.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

PROLOGUE

Part 1. IMPELLING FORCES

1 MOTHER RUSSIA

2 PIONEERS OF LIBERTY

3 THE TRIO

4 AUTONOMISTS

5 HOMESTEAD

6 ATTENTAT

7 JUDGMENT

8 BURIED ALIVE

9 BLACKWELL'S AND BRADY

10 THE TUNNEL

11 RED EMMA

12 THE ASSASSINATION OF McKINLEY

13 E. G. SMITH

Part II. PALACES OF THE RICH

14 RESURRECTION

15 THE WINE OF SUNSHINE AND LIBERTY

16 THE INSIDE STORY OF SOME EXPLOSIONS

17 TROUBLE IN PARADISE

18 THE BLAST

19 THE GREAT WAR

20 BIG FISH

Part III. OPEN EYES

21 THE RUSSIAN DREAM

22 THE BOLSHEVIK MYTH

23 CHARLOTTENGRAD

24 GLOBE-TROTTERS AND COLONIZERS

25 NOW AND AFTER

26 BON ESPRIT

27 PILLAR TO POST

28 OLD GLORY

29 NOTHING BUT DEATH CAN END

30 WALDHEIM

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-674-07034-8

0-674-06767-3

OCLC:

817224987