Anarchismus und andere Essays

Emma Goldman engages with numerous aspects of the political and social life of her time in these texts, mostly written around 1910, which originally appeared in the monthly magazine Mother Earth that she published. She refutes the accusation that anarchism ultimately leads to chaos and promotes violence, instead defining it as a foundation for unimpeded human development, true social progress, and a genuinely harmonious society.

From this perspective, she sharply criticizes government, patriotism, militarism, prisons, the church, puritanism, marriage, and property. However, emancipation and women's suffrage are not spared from her critique either.

Yet Emma Goldman is by no means against everything: not only does syndicalism excite her, but also the efforts for free education that are being implemented in some free school projects, as well as the theater of her time, which she analyzes across countries and finds to be the ideal breeding ground for radical ideas. Even years later, in "Was My Life Worth Living," she does not waver from her convictions, and her texts remain highly relevant even today.