Goddess of anarchy : the life and times of Lucy Parsons, American radical / Jacqueline Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, Jacqueline, 1948- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Parsons, Lucy E. (Lucy Eldine), 1853-1942.

Parsons, Lucy E.

Parsons, Lucy E (Lucy Eldine), 1853-1942.

Anarchists--United States--Biography.

Anarchists.

United States.

Working class--United States--History.

Working class.

History.

Labor movement--United States--History.

Labor movement.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical.

HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.

HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women.

Local Subjects:

Parsons, Lucy E (Lucy Eldine), 1853-1942.

Working class--United States--History.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical.

Labor movement.

HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.

HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

Anarchists.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women.

Working class.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 447 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, 2017.

Summary:

"From a prize-winning historian, a new portrait of an extraordinary activist and the turbulent age in which she lived Goddess of Anarchy recounts the formidable life of the militant writer, orator, and agitator Lucy Parsons. Born to an enslaved woman in Virginia in 1851 and raised in Texas-where she met her husband, the Haymarket "martyr" Albert Parsons-Lucy was a fearless advocate of First Amendment rights, a champion of the working classes, and one of the most prominent figures of African descent of her era. And yet, her life was riddled with contradictions-she advocated violence without apology, concocted a Hispanic-Indian identity for herself, and ignored the plight of African Americans. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Jacqueline Jones presents not only the exceptional life of the famous American-born anarchist but also an authoritative account of her times-from slavery through the Great Depression"-- Provided by publisher.

"Goddess of Anarchy is the biography of the formidable radical activist, writer, and orator Lucy Parsons (1853-1942), also known as Lucia Eldine Gonzalez Parsons, whose long life was entwined with the major radical labor struggles of her turbulent era. Born to an enslaved woman in Virginia in 1851, Parsons became the wife of Confederate veteran and anarchist organizer Albert R. Parsons, who was unjustly imprisoned and eventually hanged in 1887 for his alleged role in the Haymarket bombing in Chicago. After Albert's imprisonment and death, Parsons forged her own career as orator and labor agitator, editor, free-speech activist, essayist, fiction writer, publisher, and political commentator. A fearless advocate of First Amendment rights, a founding member of the Socialist Party of America in 1900, and a cofounder of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, Parsons was one of only a handful of women and the only African American of her era to speak regularly to large crowds throughout the nation. Parsons was a thoughtful critic of Gilded Age America, but also well-known for her rhetorical provocations. She worked closely with, or bitterly against, other labor agitators of her day, including Eugene Debs and Emma Goldman, with whom she had a feud about the sexual liberation of women. And yet Lucy Parsons' life was shrouded in contradictions, marked by a series of traumas and personal tragedies. Historian Jacqueline Jones presents here a nuanced portrait of Parsons, reckoning with all of her paradoxes--her consistent advocacy of violence, her made-up Hispanic-Indian identity, and her refusal to acknowledge her African descent and the plight of African-Americans"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1: An enduring Civil War

Wide-open Waco

Republican heyday

Part 2: Gilded Age dynamite

A local war

Farewell to the ballot box

A false alarm?

Haymarket

Bitter fruit of braggadocio

"The dusky goddess of anarchy speaks her mind"

The blood of my husband

Part 3: Blatherkite

Goddess of free speech

The widow Parsons sets her course

Variety in life, and its crimes

Tending the sacred flame of Haymarket

Wars at home and abroad

Part 4: The falling curtain of mystery

Facts and fine-spun theories

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-415) and index.

ISBN:

9780465078998

0465078990

OCLC:

982093458